


Return To Normalcy

by Sins_of_the_Scruff



Category: Undertale (Video Game)
Genre: A Bit of Fluff, Alternate Universe - Horrortale, Blood and Violence, Character Death, F/M, Papyrus (Horrortale) - Freeform, Rating May Change, Sans (Horrortale) - Freeform, Some angst, and better tags to come, lots of characters having bad times
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-05-23
Updated: 2018-07-06
Packaged: 2019-05-10 10:17:39
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 10
Words: 28,138
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14735078
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Sins_of_the_Scruff/pseuds/Sins_of_the_Scruff
Summary: You signed up for an ad in the local newspaper to be the designated human roommate to Horrortale!skeleton brothers, sans and Papyrus after getting out of an abusive relationship and needing some time away from other humans. The brothers were deemed fit to return to civilization following a long rehabilitation at the local mental facility and you are charged with integrating them back into social life and give them a chance to bond with humans after being under the mountain for so long. All three of you have your own personal obstacles to face, but can you face them all while living under one roof?





	1. Help Me Out

**Author's Note:**

> Another random fic idea that decided to make itself known to me at 6:30 this morning when it knew I was in no position to write and could not write it until nearly 10 hours later. I wanted to try delving into an Undertale AU that I'm not that comfortable with and of course, try and give it a happier ending given the normal, grim circumstances of the Horrortale universe because I will not stand for 100% angst. So...here we go?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> "Ooh, I need some temporary saving // Ooh, I need some, some uncomplicating  
> Help me out // 'Cause I don't wanna do this on my own // Help me out, out  
> Help me out, 'cause I need something up to calm me down // Help me out, out" ~ Maroon 5 - Help Me Out

Nobody said life was going to be easy.

There was always going to be some hurdle you had to jump, some sort of obstacle that you had to tackle head on to move past it. There would be good times to enjoy, but more often than not for you, those moments seemed to pass you by or downright ignore you. Currently, you found yourself curled up on a small rocking chair cross stitching a pattern for a throw pillow you had, but homely apartment on the edge of town in the middle of one of those rare good times. After trading an emotionally abusive family for a physically abusive boyfriend and then dumping him after the 3rd broken bone and sweet lies permeated under the stench of hard liquor of _ “I’ll never do this again”  _ you were done with humans for a while.

Answering an ad in the local newspaper, you found yourself moving in with the most unlikely neighbors: two skeleton brothers. Apparently the myths and stories were true and a population of monsters did inhabit the inside of Mt. Ebott just to the west of the town. What was left of the monsters emerged from a freak anomaly in the universe. Or, at least that’s what the news outlets kept spewing forth. The group that did make it to the city were horrifying as it was soon found out that the monsters were trapped for so long without renewable resources that they began delving into insanity and devouring each other just to stay alive. 

You could partially understand the monsters and their need to survive, even if it meant letting go of their morals. Of course, the local government wasn’t too excited to get a few hundred mental unstable, slightly cannibalistic, highly magical monsters in their town and the ones brave enough to help, put them into intensive therapy to rehabilitate them. Those who gained enough sanity back to not be a threat to the general public were allowed to leave the facility and begin a new life in a special part of town. Right, a special part of town. You snorted, the “special” part of town was literally just the older, more run down side of town. The buildings were slightly crumbling, there were barely any businesses still open and few humans made their own there. Not even the homeless would step foot in that part of town.

Each monster or pair of monsters that were living in the shoddy apartments were given a human roommate. Most thought they were to babysit the still mildly feral monsters, but what it gave them was social interaction. Not a lot of humans were up for that task as you ran the risk of relapses with the monsters. One or two volunteers had met a grisly end when a monster had a flashback and devoured them bit by bit. You weren’t put off by that though. Humans were far scarier, more devious than these monsters and the skeletons you were living with, two brothers by the names of sans and Papyrus,were more than you could ask for. The initial meeting of course was awkward, as you sat on one side of the table and the two on the other side. Sans was a large, stocky skeleton with an unnerving smile, one red, blown wide eye light, and a huge gaping hole on one side of his skull. Papyrus was an incredibly tall skeleton with small, pinprick eyes, jagged discolored teeth, and fragile bones.

Sans wouldn’t say anything to you when you first introduced yourself, he just sat there...smiling. It was definitely creepy, but when you turned to Papyrus and greeted yourself, his jagged teeth pulled up into a lopsided grin and he loudly greeted you back.  **“HeLLo, HumAn! It Is sO niCe To mEeT oUr pOteNtiaL nEw RoOMmAte! DO yoU liKe sPagHettI?”** His voice was higher pitched and scratchy, like the sound a record makes when the needle scratches. It was grating on your ears the first couple of meetings, but eventually you got used to it. Every meeting up to the move in, sans would say nothing, letting his brother do all the talking. He would just sit there and stare at you. A shiver would run down your spine and it just felt so eerie, like he was judging you. Eventually the time came for the brothers to decide if you were qualified to be their roommate. You needed both of their approval in order for this to go through.

Papyrus had agreed with a resounding,  **“YEs!”** and so it was down to sans as you turned to him, already used to the hard gaze and stared right back. _ “Sure.” _ The voice that came from this skeleton was low, gravelly pitch that made the inner part of your ear itch. It wasn’t a bad sound, if anything, you quite liked it. Of course you were going to keep that little fact to yourself and never speak it aloud if you could help it. Once the papers were signed and you were given an apartment to move into, you took what little you had out of storage that your ex hadn’t stolen from you and moved into your room on the first floor. 

The skeleton brothers had their rooms on the 2nd floor for their own privacy which allowed you the small bedroom and dayroom beside it. You loved sitting in your rocking chair that you still had from your grandmother, the only family that seemed to love you, and did little cross stitch projects and crafts. Those moments of solitude were doing wonders for your anxiety, which along with weekly therapist visits, was gradually getting better. Sans and Papyrus were getting better as well. Papyrus was more alert and observant, although the childlike naivety would sometimes present itself when introduced to new things or people. Sans...sans was getting better in the sense that he would now murmur a greeting to you and once in a blue moon, his smile would relax into a seemingly genuine one. 

You could feel there was still some tension from him if it was just you and him in a room alone or if he found you alone with Papyrus somewhere. You wouldn’t blame him, one look at his dossier told you that he raised and kept his brother safe in the Underground. A lot of the information was blacked out and he wouldn’t say much about their time before gaining access to the Surface so you left it be. Everyone was entitled to their space and their secrets. One thing that was blatantly clear on his dossier was: NO KNIVES. Apparently his main trigger was any knife of sort so you kept them away in a low drawer in the kitchen. Whenever it was your time to cook, you made triple sure to advise sans that you were using it so there were no surprises.

Papyrus loved to help you cook. It was difficult to basically rewire your diet as you LOVED red meats, but for the first initial months, meat was frowned upon as it could also be a trigger. But, soon enough, you got the hang of a basic veggie lifestyle with some meat every now and then through take out. Sans and Papyrus seemed to be fine with fish, as long as it wasn’t blue, whatever that meant, so you had salmon and tilapia a lot as well. Papyrus enjoyed making pasta and every Thursday night, he’d want to make something new. He had a devout love for the Food Network channel and enjoyed reruns of Good Eats with Alton Brown. He would often say that one day he would meet the great chef, Gordon Ramsey and chastise him for his language, even though he adored his cooking methods.

With sans, it was difficult to pinpoint something that you could do with him. He didn’t divulge much on his hobbies and mostly kept to himself. After a few days of seeing him sitting in a room alone and watching his fingers twitch with the need of something to do, you splurged on a couple of fidget gadgets for him to mess with and to give his thoughts a rest as he focused on something else. You also found that he enjoyed reading after finding several of your books missing, even if it took him a whole week for a small novel due to his slower comprehension from the blow to his skull. You also found out he was quite smart and so you purchased different astronomy and science texts for him to delve into, as well as sci-fi books to break up the monotony. Murmurs of thanks and the sounds of the fidget gadgets every once in awhile assured you that you were at somewhat of a breakthrough with him, which relieved you. You and the brothers had tackled quite a few intimidating obstacles the past month so that only meant a good time had to be around the corner

 

Right?


	2. I Can See Clearly Now, The Rain Is Gone

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> "I can see clearly now, the rain is gone, I can see all obstacles in my way.  
> Gone are the dark clouds that had me blind. It's gonna be a bright (bright), bright (bright)  
> Sun-Shiny day." ~ Johnny Nash - I Can See Clearly Now

All was well for the first couple of months that you lived with the skeleton brothers. Everyone had a schedule that was kept and everything was running smoothly. As you worked on your latest craft, Papyrus came through the door with another physical puzzle, and sat down on the ratty couch. **_“HeLlO [Y/n]! ArE yOu EnjOyiNg qUieT TimE?”_ ** Even though it was your designated quiet time, there was no lowering of Papyrus’ voice. It was just permanently booming, but you didn’t mind, it was getting a bit too quiet anyway. As you sat and stitched a couple lines on your latest project, you casually would stare over to Papyrus as he held the puzzle up close to his eyes several times to figure out how to solve it.

The puzzles you bought him were physical ones that had multiple steps to be figured out in a certain order to either complete them or gain access to the prize inside. After gaining enough of his trust that he would remove his gloves which had previously been on him 24/7 as was the rest of his 'battle body', you could see his hands were cracked and so very brittle. The medicine you ordered from the facility after seeing just how bad his bones looked mixed in with the daily dose of milk was slowly, but surely getting his bones back into good health and in order to make sure that his digits didn't lock up from lack of use, you gave him things that made him have to use them. Picking up the puzzle again after dislodging a piece, you frowned at his pinpoint eyes nearly disappearing into his skull as he squinted to see the more intricate details.

That couldn't be good for what little eyesight he had, so you looked over into your craft basket for the pair of magnifier glasses you sometimes used for particularly small projects. His skull was definitely too wide to fit the glasses themselves, but maybe you could sort of MacGyver them into something he could use. Popping the lenses out of the frames, you took them over to the craft table and used a screwdriver to take the frame apart. The temple piece that laid over your ear gave you an idea, if the glasses themselves wouldn't fit, perhaps he could at least use one as a handheld monocle of sorts? Searching through the drawers, you located your hot glue gun and as it heated up, placed the lense against the temple piece and held it up.

It would be a shoddy fix, but you hoped it would help Papyrus for the time being. At least until you were able to take him to an eye doctor, but that would have to wait as the skeleton brothers were nowhere near ready to go out and mingle in large crowds of humans. You'd call the facility a little bit later and see if there was someone who could come over to the house to take a look at him, but for now this would have to do. A thin line of glue and 10 minutes of holding it firmly together, a handmade monocle of sorts was done. You turned to Papyrus and held it carefully in your hand.

 _"Papyrus?"_ It took a couple of tries, but eventually it registered to the tall skeleton that he was being talked to and he put down the puzzle to turn to you. **_"yEs, [y/N], WhAt Is iT?"_ ** You didn't really know how to ask this in a not blunt way, but he didn't seem to mind it, " _Are you able to see alright, Papyrus?"_ His head tilted a bit, as if having to think about it and squinted. **_"i Can sEe You sTanDing In fRonT Of mE, yeS!"_ ** You shook your head, _"ok but without squinting can you tell me how many fingers am I holding up?"_ You held up your right hand with 3 fingers raised.

He looked over and then he furrowed his boney brows, **_"4? nO...Is iT 2? I...I dOn'T KnOw, [Y/n]. ThiNgS HaVe aLwaYs bEen A biT bLurRy fOr ThE GrEaT PaPyrUs, But I aSsurE yOu I Am noT bLiNd!"_ ** You shook your head again, _"No, Papyrus, you're not blind, but you may just have some trouble seeing and that's ok. I think I may have a temporary fix until we can have someone come look and get you a personally made pair of glasses. Can you try looking through this?"_ Holding up the makeshift tool, you gently picked up his hand and curled it around it, _"now, easy on the grip, we don't want to break it before we've even tried to see if it helps."_

You guided the tool back to his right eye and he blinked several times, getting used to the changing vision. His gaze went wide as his teeth curled into a smile, **_"YoU...yOu HavE a FaCe, [y/N]! I cAn See It!"_ ** He reached out with his other hand and felt your nose and cheeks, being mindful not to poke you in the eyeball. **_"AnD yOuR sHirT, [Y/N]! It SaYs...'I CaN't aDuLt toDaY.'"_ ** He started to laugh and stood up to give you a nearly bone crushing hug! **_"I ThoUghT tHis Was juSt hoW tHe SurFaCe loOkeD, All bLurrY aNd a MisH mAsh Of ColOrS, But noW...BROTHER!"_ ** You swore you went deaf for half a second as he yelled for sans. He was there in an instant, immediately on guard for whatever made his brother scream. You were released and he immediately went over to sans, shoving his face into his and peering all around. **_"YoU aRe AbsOluTelY fiLtHy, SaNs! WheN iS tHe lAst tImE YoU wAshEd tHesE clOtHes!"_ ** sans stared at his currently occupied brother and then glanced over at you in question.

 _"He...he...he was having trouble with the puzzles and I thought maybe he couldn't see that well and uh, made him a temporary monocle until we can get him a good pair of glasses?"_ sans didn't have time to retort before he was hoisted into the air in one hand while Papyrus spinned around, **_"I cAn SeE, bRotHer, i CaN seE!"_ ** sans in between spins managed to finally get a word in, _"that's great, Paps. Yer were already cool before, but now yer extra glassy."_ Papyrus beamed at the first compliment, but upon realizing his brother made a pun, slightly frowned, **_'*gasp* oH sTarS, MayBe I cAn ActUallY fIniSh SomE Of tHosE pUzZleS tHat DefeAteD mE BefOre!"_ ** He gently placed sans back onto the ground and then ran out of the room and up the stairs, giggling happily.

sans righted himself and his gaze slightly softened, _"'aven't seen Paps that happy since....”_ his lone eye light fizzled out as muddled tears formed in his sockets. You were torn as he looked a bit relieved, but it was still too early for a lot of physical contact so you abstained from walking over to give him a hug. In time, maybe that could be a reality. _"It's ok, sans, I'm just happy he's able to see clearly out of one eye for the moment. I wondered why he was always bringing things up close to his face so I thought I'd try to help."_ sans nodded, _"thanks, kid. 'm sorry if 've been distant these past coupla weeks. this...this isn't easy fer me at all, but I say I'd do anything fer my bro, even if it means going through all this."_

 _"I understand, sans. Nobody said this was going to be easy for anyone of us, but I'm sure it'll get easier as time goes on. Let's take the little victories while we can, there may not be some for awhile now."_ sans brushed away the tears on his sleeve and his eye light returned as his grin turned a bit solemn, _"well said, [y/n]. 'll be in my room for a little bit, wake me when Paps is done with dinner."_ A second later and he was gone, blipped from the doorway to the second floor of the apartment followed by a door closing. You let out a huge sigh, holy hell that could've gone SO many different ways, but you were happy with what had happened. You cleaned up the dayroom and went into the kitchen for the file folder that had the facility's number on it. It had several numbers for doctors, therapists, and an emergency number. If there were ANY issues at all, you were sworn to call them and a group would be dispatched immediately to assess the situation. You hoped you never had to dial that number and continued flipping until you found the page with different doctor/patient numbers.

You had to call several numbers before finding someone who could come out for a home diagnostic and prescription. The doctor was a small female who was monster friendly and had no issue coming by tomorrow afternoon to take a look at Papyrus. Ending the call, you put it in the schedule and then realized you were going to have to break the news at dinner to sans. You didn't know how he'd react, I'm sure they'd seen their share of doctors for so long, they really rather not have to see another one so soon. You'd mull on how to handle that later though, it was nearly 5 o'clock and dinner still needed to be prepped for Papyrus.

You were teaching him to make good old fashioned potato soup tonight and the vegetables needed to be washed, peeled, and cut before anything else. Half an hour later, the veggies were prepped and off to the side while you placed the liquids behind the veggies and got the pots and pans out from under the oven. Papyrus literally came bouncing in, shaking half of the kitchen with him. **_"[y/N], TheRe iS sO MuCh tO sEe WitH oNe EyE LighT, bUt iT Is VerY hArd To dO tHinGs wIth OnLy onE haNd. I ShoUlD noT ComPlaIn tHouGh, M.K. diD Not haVe AnY hAnDs aNd He sTiLl-"_ ** He suddenly cut off when he realized what he was saying and tears overtook his eyes, threatening to overflow.

 _"Hey, hey, shh...it's ok."_ You took his monocle away and without even thinking, wrapped your arms around the bottom of his battle body and patted his back lightly. _"I know it's hard losing so many good friends, Papyrus. It's ok to cry for them. That's how we can start moving on from the grief."_ You had never initiated this type of physical contact with Papyrus before, but you felt so bad for not being able to hug sans, and felt even worse when Papyrus started sobbing that you had to do something. His long arms encircled you as he knelt and continued to cry, holding you close. **_"I MiSs tHeM sO MuCh...wHy Did Fr...wHy dId ThEy leAvE Us...TheY ProMisEd TheEy wOuLd CoMe BaCk...TheY dIdN't ComE bAcK..."_ **

You had a good idea of who he was talking about, something in their dossiers had mentioned that a human had previously fallen down into the Underground and was supposed to come back and break the barrier, but never did, leading to their descent into madness in their mountain tomb. _"I can't answer that, Papyrus, but I know that you're here now and you gotta stay here in the present. You gotta be strong for yourself, and for sans. I know he believes in you and I do, too."_ You pulled slightly back and held his skull in your hands, brushing away the tear tracks, " _I'm sorry for your loss, but you, your brother, and the other monsters? You've been given a chance to move on and begin a new life, a new adventure! There are better memories waiting for The Great Papyrus, how about we start one now?"_ You kept your smile for him as you retrieved the monocle and gave it back to him and he smiled back, standing straight and retrieving his 'Kiss the Cook' apron you had gotten him. **_"yoU aRe rIghT, [y/N]! The GrEaT PapYruS WiLl dEdiCatE His liVinG To eVerYoNe wHo iS...No lOngEr LivInG!"_ ** You grabbed your cooking spoon, _"sounds like a good plan, Papyrus, now let's get dinner started! I'm sure you'll love potatoes!"_

* * *

 

From just around the corner of the kitchen, sans stared at Papyrus and you, keeping vigilant watch like he always did. When Papyrus started to cry, it nearly cracked his soul in half. He didn't like when his brother was sad, his happiness and blind optimism was the only thing that kept him going some days and he blamed himself everyday that life was like this for them. He didn't understand why the kid never came back either and that cemented a deep loathing for humans in general. Just a race of lying, deceitful parasites that do nothing but invade and wipe out everything. But then came you. You who openly agreed to live with the two of them knowing what they went through, the things  _HE_ did to make sure him and his brother survived the horrors of the Underground. You who had utmost patience dealing with his mood swings and isolation and Papyrus' poor eyesight and general need for someone to be with him at all times. They were probably a lot to deal with, but you managed to do so without complaining.

He knew only very little about you, that you came from an emotionally abusive family and just left a physically abusive boyfriend and wanted some time away from other humans. He could understand that and was actually livid to see the multiple bruises that laced your arms and neck when you first met them. He didn't quite trust you completely, but he at least tolerated your presence for the time being. If you raised your hand or threatened Papyrus in ANY way whatsoever though, you would be in for the worst of times. He froze as he watched you pull his brother into an embrace and comforted him through his tears and gave reassurance. He was ready for the worst, but all you did was hug him and then released him to begin cooking with him once his tears had stopped. You were an interesting human; he'd still watch you, but maybe there was something more to you than he initially thought...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hope that Papyrus' text isn't too difficult to read, but with his uneven teeth, the dialogue would be kinda wonky as well. I feel Papyrus is the more grounded of the two skeletons and fared better in the mental facility than sans did which is why he's able to adapt a bit better. I promise sans will have more interaction in the next chapter with the reader. :o


	3. Over and Over

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Picking up the pieces that they left you in again // Love is all is want but you're never going to feel the same // It's hard to be yourself when everyone around is changing // Open up your eyes and you'll never lose yourself again // And we go over and over and over again // Are ya lost in the past thinkin' what might have been // You're here and you’re now, started over and then // Take it over and over and over again ~ The Goo Goo Dolls - Over and Over

sans rarely slept anymore.

 

It used to be something he was so good at, he probably could’ve gotten gold in Champion Sleeping if there was an Olympic sport based around it. But, as the insanity swept the Underground, it was an automatic death sentence to let your guard down, even if it was sleeping just to regain what little magic you had left. sans would remain vigilant as Papyrus slept in his race car bed after spending the entire day trapping and catching prey, sans' lone red eye light served both a warm glow to his sleeping brother and a warning that those who dared trespass into their home would end in dust and bloodshed. That is, if they even got past the traps that lay around the home itself. Papyrus' creativity with sans' ruthlessness made their traps effective and deadly. Very little crept onto their property, either they were lost completely to the madness and didn't care or came for a quick end to it all. The air of the Underground had become stagnant and filled with the dust of the deceased as death and decay moved through the area and overtook everything. Only Papyrus and sans seemed to remain in Snowdin as everyone else either perished or moved away.

Even now when they were on the Surface, it was hard to break habits and routines. sans and Papyrus were given separate rooms, but more often than not, sans found himself at the foot of his brother's bed,night after night, watching him, making sure he slept through the night safely. He didn't know how he was still functioning rationally with how little sleep he’d had the past couple of years. The human doctors had prescribed him sleeping pills and medicinal marijuana to try and help curb his paranoia and allow him at least a couple hours of sleep, but even those were starting to wear off. When he told you he would be up in his room before dinner, it was merely a ruse to keep watch when you were cooking with his brother. It had been a couple of months and you had yet to do anything that was overly suspicious, but humans could be sneaky and had almost the level of patience that monsters did so he continued to watch. He knew you had read both of their dossiers beforehand and went the extra mile to keep their triggers at a minimum. He could at least appreciate that gesture, even if he didn't say it to your face.

When he witnessed Papyrus breaking down in front of you, he wanted to dust himself right then and there. The pain that he felt from Papyrus' sadness was almost too much to bear, but when you suddenly comforted him in a way that he used to, it shocked him. He still didn't really know what you were getting out of this job by basically playing babysitter to them, but it almost seemed like you actually cared for their well being. If anything, sans could've sworn that you enjoyed their presence over humans in general and that really confused the Hell out of him. A human choosing literal monsters over their own kind? There had to be more to that. Satisfied though that Papyrus was going to be ok after the comforting was done, he blipped back to his room to actually try and nap before dinner. Stars, when was the last time he actually got a full nap in? There were too many resets, too many nightmares and days blending into one another to know just how long they were trapped Underground and with the lack of sleep, it was even more difficult to pinpoint the length of time. 

The bedroom had very little in it. A small dresser, a desk, a bookshelf, and the bed. An honest to stars actual bed was provided for him, not like the ratty mattress he had back...home. He had sheets, blankets, pillows, everything needed for a good night's rest. Most nights he didn't bother with all that and threw it to the ground, but tonight he fell on top of it and rolled to his side, keeping the hole in his head away from the pillows and blankets to keep from snagging it on something. Some days he would lay on his back and stare into the nothingness of his ceiling and wonder just where it all went wrong and what he could've done to stop it. It was pointless in the end though, they were topside of the mountain now, even if some bits and pieces were missing. The countless therapists he had seen told him that if he continued to dwell on the past that he would never break free from it. 

Heh, they all said it to his face like it was so easy to just forget nearly half of his memory when it clawed and screamed within his skull, digging itself deeper and deeper. Flashes of the child with its dripping smile and dusted knife along with the corpses of everyone he knew around him would assault him every now and then, though with the fidget gadget you had given him, his mind wandered less and less and the visions started to subside. You really did everything in your power to help make their transition the most comfortable it could be and asked very little in return. That type of generosity set sans a bit on edge as there was always something to give in return and when you still did not ask for anything, he started to get suspicious. Still you had yet to do or say anything so he would bide his time until you actually did something. In the meantime, he allowed his sockets to close and for once, went to sleep peacefully.

About an hour or so later, the soup was warming on the stove top and Papyrus was cleaning up the pots and pans used. You were headed upstairs to grab sans and then you all would eat dinner together like you did every night. Creaking his door open, for once you did not see his telltale red eye light in the darkness. For once, you heard harsh snores echoing throughout the room. Thank God, he finally was able to sleep some. You were worried that he'd never sleep, even with the pills and medicine that the facility provided, he was almost always awake. This meant that he was starting to relax and become comfortable with his surroundings, and certainly to an extent, you. You decided to leave him to sleep and would set aside some food for him for later. At this point, he needed all the R n' R that he could get. Gently shutting the door, you crept back down the stairs and sat at the table with Papyrus.  **_"wHerE Is SanS At?"_ ** Papyrus had served sans some soup and had placed it on his table mat with a questioning look. You smiled, _ "he's asleep, Papyrus. I thought it'd be best to let him sleep as long as he could being that it's probably the first time I've ever heard him snore."  _ Papyrus' spoon clattered in his bowl,  **_"hE iS...FinAllY sLeEpiNg?"_ ** His grin was the biggest she had seen as he giggled happily,  **_"mY BroTheR hAs NoT sLePt In YeArS! He alWayS tHoUgH dIdN't KnoW hE WaS At tHe fOoT oF My BeD wAtcHinG oVeR Me, BuT I kNew AnD cOuLd NeVer cOnvIncE hIm tO TakE a NaP, EvEn wItH Me WatChiNg HiM! ThIs iS veRy gOod newS."_ **

_ "Ya know we wouldn't be here if I didn't stay awake, Paps"  _ sans was leaning on the door frame, still very exhausted looking, but with the hour and half of rest, seemed to appear much more lucid. He sat down in his chair and picked up his spoon before waving it in your direction,  _ "weren't ya 'sposed ta wake me up when Paps was ready with dinner? I am just bones here." _ You pushed your soup around in the bowl, _ "I'm sorry, it was just the first time I've seen you actually sleep. To be honest, I didn't even know a bag of bones could snore."  _ sans' lone eye light went wide, almost taking up the entire socket as his jaw dropped. Papyrus sprayed his milk over his part of the table as he started to laugh,  **_"NYEH HEHE HEHE! yOur FacE, bRotHeR! i DoN’t tHinK i HaVe EveR sEeN yOu PunLesS beForE!"_ ** sans turned to Papyrus and a low rumble started in his rib cage before erupting from his mouth in a low chuckle, _ "tibia honest, Paps, puns are hard to come by nowadays."  _ You were trying to hold in your own laughter as Papyrus huffed as he set down his monocle and started to eat. _ "so what's this 'sposed to be?" _  He moved his spoon around the viscous liquid and brought a spoonful up to his nasal cavity. It was spiced and had big chunks of some sort of root vegetable swirling around.  **_"iT's SoUp, sAnsS i-wE-I MaDe iT FoR tHe FiRsT tImE! DoeS It tAsTe GoOd?"_ **

Papyrus was at first nervous when he proclaimed that he made the soup, but you nodded approvingly and he carried on as he took a loud slurp from his bowl. You watched sans stir his soup around a bit more before taking a small spoonful and opening his mouth to shovel it in. You tried not to stare, you really did, but watching sans eat was for lack of a better word, interesting. For one, his teeth looked like any normal teeth all flat and squared, but hidden on the sides only visible when he opened wide, were rather large fangs. He was a monster after all, but besides the secret fangs, it was how he ate his food that amazed you. He ate slowly, savoring each bite like it would be his last. His lone eye light almost filled his socket the first time you ever asked him if he wanted seconds.

Only then did it actually click in your head that of course he would act like that when food was a rare oddity back in the Underground. Any food that was found was heavily rationed and stored away to last them as long as it could. But here, the food was plentiful, the options were endless, it was just such a joy to see the skeleton bros find a simple pleasure in a meal. After a few minutes of quiet eating, you decided it was time to bring up Papyrus’ appointment tomorrow.  _ “Sans, Papyrus, I was able to find a someone to come take a look at your eyes tomorrow for some glasses.”  _ Two sets of spoons hit their bowls and you waited for the inevitable blow up.

Papyrus had an astonished look on his face, before turning to sans,  **_“I’m GoiNg To gEt glAsSes?! BrOthEr, i WiLl fiNalLy Be aBlE tO SeE yOu WitH bOtH EyeS aNd hUg You aT thE SaMe tImE!!”_ ** sans looked less than thrilled, in fact one might say he looked angry. You were quick to try and provide reassurance,  _ “I only called the numbers that they gave me on the folder, there’s not going to be a random human in the house and I heard she’s very good with monsters.” _ That reassurance seemed to do about as little as a cork in an overflowing dam, but once Papyrus started going on and on about what he could do after he regained his sight, he relaxed a bit.

_ “Sans, I would never put you or your brother in harm’s way, I just want to help you get better.” _ sans’ eye light shrunk as he stared over at you, again igniting that chill down your spine. You were definitely sure that you were being judged on the the truthfulness of said statement. Eventually the eye light expanded to normal and he continued to eat, finishing his bowl.  _ “‘Ey, can I get another bowl, Paps? Yer cooking’s the best after all.”  _ Papyrus beamed as he stood and walked into the kitchen for more soup. Sans turned and you suddenly felt heavy as you were pulled from your chair and dragged over to him. His eye light had completely disappeared and you were left staring into dark, empty sockets. _ “Lemme get somethin’ straight with ya right here and now. Ya don’t ever make plans like that again without me knowin’ first hand, got it?”  _

His whispers were low and threatening and you nodded quickly,  _ “Yer can’t trust anyone at that fuckin’ facility, let alone some human that looks at eyeballs and eye lights all day. If anything,  _ _ ANYTHING _ _ happens to Papyrus, I’ll come fer ya first.” _ The magical hold disappeared and you dropped to the ground, shaking slightly. Papyrus had returned carrying sans’ bowl,  **_“[y/N?] wHaT ArE yOu DoiNg oN tHe FloOr?”_ ** You popped up quickly,  _ “Just fell off my chair, Papyrus, I’m good.”  _ sans merely started eating again and Papyrus left to go wash your dishes. You were left sitting alone with him again and you broke the silence as you stood to go to your room,  _ “I meant what I said, sans. I care for you and your brother whether you want to believe it now or not. I know a few months isn’t enough to get to know someone, but I wish you’d see past the human part of me. Sometimes I look into the mirror and even I have no clue who’s staring back at me, not kind enough to be monster, not cruel enough to be human, so where does that leave me, sans? Just a shell with a lost soul waiting to break free...maybe one day I’ll finally shatter and gain my freedom….maybe sooner than we all think.” _

Tears in your eyes, you left without another word from the dining room table and went into your room, slamming the door and locking it. You just wanted someone to care for you in the way you cared for others. But, it didn’t matter if it was your family, your ex, and now sans for the moment, it just seemed pointless. If humans or monsters didn’t care, who else was left then? You sniffed as you caught sight of yourself in your full length mirror and HATED what you saw. The vision of yourself sobbing pitifully just sickened you, and you reached for something, anything and chucked it at the mirror, shattering it. The new, fractured picture of yourself was different now, the large chunks that had fallen to the floor like pieces missing from your soul. You crawled over and grabbed one of the pieces, not caring that it sliced into your skin.

Placing them back into the frame one by one, the fractured pieces eventually became whole again and you took a moment to close your eyes and breathe deeply. You couldn’t let this do you in, you could persevere through this hurdle, there was always the finish line to keep looking towards and this was no different. You would convince sans that you weren’t evil, that you had no bad intentions. It would just take time and patience and you knew you at least at had one of those on your side. When a knock came at your door with a worried Papyrus on the other side, you opened your eyes and saw a complete reflection, like the cracks were never there in the first place. Time to start again.

 

_ “Coming, Papyrus…” _

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi guys!
> 
> So I'm super probably out of my comfort zone with probably everything I'm writing about so if things are a bit clunky, or maybe not the best way to handle things, forgive me. Honest to God, this was just supposed to be a 2-3 chaptered thing, but now it's growing into something more...like usual with my stories. 
> 
> I know that each chapter has had a song with a few lyrics to generally represent the following text, but this song is really what spearheaded the fic to begin with. It's been one of my favorite songs from The Goo Goo Dolls and I feel it really does connect with the Reader and sans with their struggles.
> 
> Thank you so much for the kudos and comments! I really don't expect anything when I feel my writing and storytelling is kinda sucky, but those notifications let me know that maybe I'm not so bad after all? Anyway, I hope you're enjoying these small chapters and I hope I can continue to crank them out faithfully(someone knock on wood!)


	4. I Won't Give Up

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And just like them old stars // I see that you've come so far // to be right where you are // How old is your soul?  
> Well I won't give up on us // Even if the skies get rough // I'm giving you all my love // I'm still lookin' up ~ Jason Mraz - I Won't Give Up

As Papyrus washed the dishes, he could hear the commotion of sans yanking you out of your chair and growling his threat to you. He shook his head sadly as he paused to further listen. He understood where his brother was coming from, everything he did in the Underground he did for him and Papyrus accepted that that was just how it was. He didn't know where this paranoia came from that made sans as protective of him as he was and sans never would open up about it. Then, as the Underground started to deteriorate, Papyrus began to understand as a form of paranoia overtook him as well. As much as sans did to keep tabs on his well being, Papyrus was doing just as much to ensure that his 1 HP brother was safe. Even out here on the Surface, the overwhelming need to protect was there, but when his mind cleared of the Hunger, he could observe more, make better decisions. There was something about you, something that was different than the previous humans he met. You did not seem to be deceitful or out for personal gain, truly only wanting to help the both of them.

Papyrus certainly still needed help. He didn't know where things went wrong and he just let himself deteriorate. He once prided himself on his immaculate looks and cleanliness, but when his brother became his sole priority, he let things slide to the side. Sometimes Papyrus blamed himself, maybe if he would have kept himself healthier, more aware of what was going on, he could've saved everyone from their sufferings. Papyrus was observant, but even he felt he failed at that back in the Underground...

Even still, Papyrus had a keen sense to know when someone was hiding secrets as sans still had heavily kept ones that he would not tell him. You had secrets, too, he could see them in the way you froze sometimes if he or sans raised their voice just a little too much or if sans displayed a higher level of aggression. From his observations, he could see that perhaps you had dealt with something traumatic like they had. Not necessarily the same exact thing they went through, but he learned from being in the facility that even humans could go through traumatic experiences and be affected from then on like they were.

Surely sans threatening her well being would not do her recovery any good. He walked back to the table where you had left and sans was eating his food in silence. **_“WhAt Do yOu ExpEcT tO GeT oUt Of thIs, BroTheR?”_ ** sans darted his eye light away and then back to him, clearly a sign that he was about to lie. Papyrus hated when his brother lied to his face.

_ “Dunno what ya mean, Paps. Just makin’ sure the human and I got our standings straight.” _

Papyrus crossed his arms, unconvinced of his brother’s lie.  **_“I dO NoT bEliEvE yOu, saNs, AnD i dO NoT eXpeCt An exPlanAtiOn oF WhY yOu Are  tReaTiNg [y/N] LikE tHIs, But I wiLl sAy thIs: ShE HaS sHoWn nO sIgnS Of aGgreSsioN AnD hAs SeEmeD tO sHoW FeAr aNd anXieTy WheN ouR vOicEs aRe rAisEd Or YoU sHoW yoUr fRustRatIoN aNd anGeR. And YeT, ShE sTilL StaYs hErE aNd HelPs uS. iF ShE tRuLy HaD maLiciOus iNteNt, Do YoU nOt tHinK sHe WouLd HavE sHowN It bY noW?"_ **

Sans pushed his now empty bowl away and ground his sockets into his hands, _ “ya just don’t get it, Paps. Ya can’t blindly trust these...humans. Not after all they’ve done ta us. She got secrets she ain’t tellin’ us. Until I know what they are, she's a threat ta me, ta YOU." _  Papyrus was saddened by that remark and sighed, _**“CoNtInUe tO beLieVe WhaT yOu WiLl, SanS. aS fOr ThE hUmaN's sEcReTs, i CaNnOt sAy WhaT sHe iS HidInG WiLl aFfeCt Us, bUt tO boLdlY aSsuMe sHe Is tHe OnLy oNe Who kEEps sEcRetS Is iGnoRanT aNd hYpOcrIticAl. AfTeR aLL, iF yOU dO noT LeT mE In oN yOuR oWn SecRetS, How cAn i EveN tRuSt yoU?"** _

Sans dropped his hands and looked at his brother with darkened sockets in shock. What did Papyrus mean he couldn’t trust him? He would never do anything to further hurt his baby brother. He'd dust himself before he'd ever do something like that. Papyrus sighed and stood from the table, **_"wE aLl hAvE OuR sTruGgLes, SaNs. YoU dO nOt GeT To dEciDe wHo HaS iT wOrSe oR MoRe iMpOrtAnT. iF yOu LeaRnED aNytHiNg aT tHe fAciLiTy, YoU ShoUlD hAvE lEaRnEd tHat. dOiNg So WilL GeT yOu nOwHeRe AnD yOu wiLL NevEr GeT PaSt ThE pAin._** **_"_ ** A sudden crash from your room startled the skeletons and they quickly raced from the kitchen to your door, thinking the worse. Creaking it open, they saw you on the floor staring up at the now shattered mirror. 

Through the cracks they could see your tear stained smile as you put pieces back, uncaring that they sliced your fingers and drew blood. Sans’ eye light shrunk to a pinpoint as he started to salivate. Just how long had it been since he’d gotten fresh meat? It was so tantalizing to see, to smell, and if they were quick enough they could- He was suddenly snagged by the collar and nearly thrown back into the living room, **_“LEAVE, SANS.”_ ** Papyrus shut the door and for the first time in a long time, glared and snarled at him. Sans sat dazed and shook his head as the feeling of Hunger slowly left him and he struggled to his feet as he teleported out of the living room. Papyrus turned back to the door and knocked softly, hoping that you were alright.

* * *

The rest of the night felt tense when you finally emerged from your room. Before coming out after Papyrus' questioning knock, you made sure to clean the cuts thoroughly with antiseptic wash and then wrap your injured hand in bandages, then wrapped further in long cloth strips. The number one still ingrained trigger that could set the brothers off, especially sans, was the sight or smell of blood. sans was absent for the reset of the night, locked away in his room, not even allowing Papyrus to come in. You felt guilty that you played a part in sans sudden aloofness, so you convinced Papyrus to come sit on the couch and watch some shows. He inquired about the crash and your now injured hand, but you played it off that one of your glass jars had slipped off your bathroom sink and you had cut yourself on picking up the glass. Papyrus stared at you with sadness, you hated lying to him, but you weren't going to cause both of the brothers to be upset tonight. Plus, you couldn't stand to see Papyrus upset, it just wasn't right. So, you pulled up the tv app and let him watch a view Steven Universe episodes and even Villainous was piquing his interest enough to pull him out of his unhappiness and brighten up a little just before bedtime.

You slept horribly that night, tossing and turning, ending up waking far earlier than you normally did so you crept downstairs into the kitchen. A hearty breakfast sounded really good as you got out eggs, hash browns, bread and waffle mix. The silence in the midst of the cooking ingredients gave you time to try and think of a way to make it up to sans. You had cemented to memory to make him apart of any decisions that would need to be made for Papyrus' well being. That being said, you made a mental note to give the doctor another call before she came over to prep her on what to expect. Papyrus would most likely need braces in the near future as well and would probably be far more difficult for sans to agree to being that that would mean a trip to a dental facility would be required.

Food prepped and made, you sat alone at the kitchen table and continued to ponder what to do as you ate. Grabbing the brothers' dossiers, you skimmed through sans' information, most of it was medical and psychiatric interviews and the like, but something caught your eye and you made a connection to something that was happening at the local grocery store down the street. In his possible triggers list, a well known condiment was listed. Apparently, sans was at one time addicted to the tomato-y condiment, ketchup, but would no longer touch the stuff do to its red color. Notes stated from Papyrus that he would often be seen guzzling it straight from the bottle and could consume a number of bottles during the day. Bleh, you didn't even like dousing your fries in the stuff. It was strictly dipping sauce and even then came behind your love of honey mustard. A light bulb suddenly went off in your head though as you closed his dossier and finished your meal as quickly as you could, before rushing to get dressed and grab your purse to race out the door.

The grocery store down the street was run by an older couple that was fine with the new monster neighbors moving in. You'd seen some younger looking monsters working at the store with their designated human and it seemed to be really helping them stay afloat while giving the monsters the needed social outing and interaction. Perhaps sans or Papyrus could one day try working at the store. Papyrus with his bright demeanor would probably work well on the registers while sans maybe would fit better with late night stocking with less people around. Mental note made, you snagged a cart and made a beeline for the condiment aisle. For some big special anniversary, limited editions of a specific brand of ketchup was on sale. You recognized it from your childhood and smiled, the ketchup bottles that lined the shelves were in colors of purple, green, and blue. That's right, the ketchup was in all different colors. You remembered the gimmick well, something to make food more fun to drizzle purple ketchup on your fries or dunk your chicken strips in green ketchup. 

The novelty wore off fast and they were quickly discontinued, but in a 20th anniversary, they brought back the multicolored ketchup for a limited time. Ignoring the strange looks from the early morning shoppers, you pulled nearly the entire stock into your cart and then pushed it to the front. You grabbed a soda, a candy bar, and a few crossword puzzles for Papyrus. What were you thinking?! You were an absolute dork for thinking that was going to make everything look normal to the cashier! When you turned the corner, you sighed in relief as one of the monsters was working the register this morning. He was a very quiet, very solemn ghost that barely would speak to anyone and often kept his gaze on the screen or the grocery items. You made sure to say hello to him every time though,  _ "good morning, Blooky. How are you doing today?" _

He glanced up at his name and then quickly back down as his human helper started bagging the items he ran through the scanner. _ "Hiiiiiii....."  _ A soft voice barely above a whisper answered back and you smiled, Blooky was actually making progress! You nodded at his human helper and he smiled back, acknowledging the progress. Ten minutes later, Blooky was still running the ketchup bottles through the scanner. He slowed on one of them and looked up at you,  _ "for sans?"  _ Your eyes widened as you merely nodded and he started scanning again. Even the helper looked surprised at the sudden remark,  _ "Yes, Blooky, I'm helping sans and Papyrus out. Well, these are all for sans, actually. The crosswords are for Papyrus"  _ He remained quiet for the rest of the transaction, but as you were leaving, he whispered to you,  _ "tell them...I said Hi...I don't get to see many friends anymore, but maybe that's for the best..."  _ You smiled again, so happy for his progress, _ "I will, Blooky. Maybe next time I can bring sans or Papyrus to say hi in person. Would that be ok?" _ It took a moment, but eventually Blooky nodded and started to ring up the next customer. You jotted down your number and gave it to the guy and would let him know once the brothers were able to come out to say hi.

With many heavy bags on your arms, you made the slow walk back to the house. Nearly out of breath, you collapsed on the kitchen floor and waited for the ceiling to stop spinning, spreading bottles all over the place. This was how Papyrus found you as his large shadow loomed over,  **_"[Y/n], Is tHiS A hUmaN ThInG tO EnjOy bEiNg On tHe kItChEn fLoOr? i Am ceRtaIn iT Is nOt cOmfOrtAblE aT aLl FoR yoU."  Y_ ** ou groaned as you sat up and put a finger to your lips to signal him to be quietier. Papyrus peered down with his monocle and nodded, then looked around at all the bags,  **_"wHaT Is tHiS? i ThOugHt yOu aLreAdY WenT gRocErY sHopPiNg fOr tHe wEEk?"_ ** You whispered back,  _ "I went to the store to see if I could find something to apologize to sans with and found these!"  _ You pulled one of the bottles out,  _ "one of your, well I certainly hope he's one of your friends, Blooky, checked me out at the register. He says hi, by the way."  _ Papyrus' face went blank as he processed the name and finally answered back,  **_"yOu mEaN sPoOkY BlOo bLoO?"_ **

Oh my god, that was the cutest nickname  EVER and just the way Papyrus said it had you right back on the floor where you started from, laughing out loud. Ok, so you were definitely going to label the guy's phone number with that name instead, as you were never going to forget that one. Papyrus allowed you to laugh for a few minutes as he scratched his head in confusion. Why was the name funny? He never learned the ghost's name or maybe he just didn't remember it, he didn't know. Eventually composing yourself, you held the bottle up and handed it over, allowing him to look it over carefully with the monocle. A moment more passed and it suddenly clicked at what he was holding,  **_"KETCHUP?!"_ **

You shushed him again,  _ "quiet, Papyrus! These are supposed to be a surprise for sans!"  _ A rumbling chuckle from the kitchen entryway startled the both of you as sans made himself known.  _ "Kinda hard to surprise anyone when Paps is screaming the rooftop down and yer laughing the basement up. Now, what could ya possible surprise...me...with?"  _ He bent down and grabbed a bottle and held it up. He read the label a few times and it took a few moments for it to click with him as well.  _ "Stars, are ya fuckin' kiddin' me? This green shit is actually ketchup? Humans are absolute fuckin' riot."  _ You nodded and it almost looked like he didn't believe you. Still, he popped the lid and to your surprise, a dark red, serpentine like tongue fell out of his mouth. He popped the lid and let a decent amount fall onto his tongue before pulling it back in and swallowing. You could hear a pin drop it was so silent in the kitchen, then sans started to laugh, a rumbling that started in his rib cage and came out in a deep bellow. As soon as he stopped laughing, the lid of the bottle was shoved into his mouth and he took a long swig of the bottle until he was crushing it in his hand.

_ "Stars, I thought I'd never get ta taste ketchup again. That hit the spot, [Y/N], but one more wouldn't hurt, right?"  _ Tossing the now crushed and empty bottle into the trash, sans made a move for one of the bags. You pounced and quickly drug them to your corner,  _ "Oh no you don't! If you keep at it like that, they'll all be gone by noon!"  _ He chuckled,  _ "read that part about me in the dossier, didja? Well, it appears we're at a stalemate, so here are my demands: ya hand over one of those little bags and I let yer out of the kitchen with ya hands intact?"  _ Your jaw dropped, he was now threatening you over bottles of ketchup!? 

Papyrus stone cold glared at his brother before gathering a few bags,  **_"yOuR mAnNeRs aRe MoSt uNbEcoMinG oF YoU, sAnS, AnD tHeSe tAcTiCs DiD nO moRe GoOd tHaN WhEn yOu uSeD tHeM On GriLlBy."_ ** He turned and grabbed more bags off the floor, **_"SanS wOuLd sTeAl tHe BoTtLeS aNy cHaNcE ThAt hE CoUlD aNd HidE ThEm aT HiS sTatIoN. iF I cAn rEmeMbeR, aT oNe PoInT yOu hAd sTolEn 15 BotTleS. GriLlBy oNly kNew thIs whEn hE sTarTeD tO PuT tRacKerS On tHe bOttLes tHemsElveS._** **_"_ ** sans shrugged with a smile, _ "what can I say? Grillbs wouldn't talk ta me while on the clock and this was the only way we could 'ketchup' with one another."  _ You and Papyrus both let out a mutual groan before Papyrus threw a few bottles at him,  **_"HeRe, If It wIlL cEasE tHe pUnS beFoRe tHeY sTarT, i WiLL aLloW a CouPlE Of BotTlEs beForE brEaKfAst._ ** sans caught the bag with ease and left the room,  _ "Thanks Paps, and I guess thanks, [Y/N]."  _

You don't know why you felt a mixture of victory and defeat at that end of events. Maybe you expected a more heartfelt thank you? Maybe a small apology? No, you weren't going to get one and just had to suffice with this little victory. Sucking in a deep breath, you let it out in a long sigh and gathered the other bottles and went to take them to your room. Your room was special in the fact the brothers were not allowed to be in there without your explicit permission. You had stashes of foods and other items that couldn't be out in the open and now your closet was going to be home to several ketchup bottles for hopefully the next couple of months. Bottles put away, you flopped onto your bed and reached for your phone and the folder with the numbers in it. Dialing, you contacted the eye doctor that would be coming over that afternoon. Thankfully she answered and you quickly went over the game plan of allowing sans to monitor closely and question anything she did. She took no insult to it and would gladly include him on the examination as long as she could examine Papyrus and get him what needed to be done. Call done, you let the phone drop to the side and curled up on your side, a nap was calling for you for sure. Maybe after a few hours of rest, you would be able to face the upcoming challenge with renewed vigor.


	5. Doctor My Eyes

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Poor Papyrus. Those long, hard years in the Underground did more damage than we could see. :(

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Doctor, my eyes // Tell me what is wrong // Was I unwise to leave them open for so long //'Cause I have wandered through this world // And as each moment has unfurled // I've been waiting to awaken from these dreams ~ Jackson Browne - Doctor My Eyes

You were able to get a few hours of rest before another knock came at the door, **_“[Y/N], iT Is aLmOsT tImE FoR tHe dOctOr tO aRrIvE."_ ** Shaking your head free of the z’s, you stood and stretched, popping various joints and opening the door to peer up into the smiling face of Papyrus. _“Are you excited or nervous, Papyrus?”_  This would be one of the first times that sans and Papyrus would be in the presence of a human other than you since being in the facility. Papyrus was indeed smiling, but the telltale sign of him rubbing his hands together in a fidget type manner, showed he was probably feeling both.

**_“I Am...bOtH, i ThiNk? I aM eXciTeD To fInAlLy bE aBlE tO sEe eVerYtHiNg aNd UsE bOtH Of My hAnDs aS It iS rAthEr dIfFicUlT wItH oNe HanD hOldInG tHe MoNocLe, BuT i..."_ **  He looked away for a moment, **_“iS tHiS hUmAn NiCe?"_ **  You understood Papyrus’ wariness and thought back again to sans’ warning as a shiver went up your spine. _“I’ve talked to her personally, Papyrus and she has seen to a lot of monsters that came out of the mountain. Plus, both me and sans will be with you every step of the way. You don’t and won’t be doing this alone.”_ Papyrus eventually stopped fidgeting long enough to grab your hand to walk towards the living room together.

Sans seemed to be permanently embedded in his old leather big easy recliner next to the couch. It seemed he was actually sleeping in it as it rocked slowly back and forth from some unseen force. You and Papyrus made sure to quietly clean the living room and move certain pieces of furniture away to prepare for the visit so that he could nap in peace. A series of raps soon came at the door and Papyrus instantly froze in the middle of picking up some puzzle books. Sans was immediately awake as well, his socket snapping open and the blood red eye light expanding in size as the chair came to an immediate stop. _“Easy, guys, I’m sure that’s just the doctor. If it’s not, we’ll ignore it. I’m not exposing you to more than you can handle right now."_ You guided Papyrus to the couch and sat him down, making sure to reassure him, _“remember, sans I and will be right here with you. No one is going to hurt you and you're safe.”_

Turning to go to the door, sans was giving you a cold, calculated look. It was very evident that he was wary of your intentions and was going to remain guarded until he could be convinced otherwise. Fat chance on that happening anytime soon. You walked over to the door and looked through the peephole to see a small woman holding a rather large bag. Opening the door, you welcomed the doctor in. _“Good afternoon, Dr. Simmons. Thank you for coming on such short notice.”_ The small woman smiled and walked in, looking around the small apartment and then to the two skeletons.

_“Hello to you as well, [Y/N], I am happy to help whenever I can. Now, where might I find Mr. Papyrus at?”_ She looked over again to the brothers and Papyrus looked like a deer caught in headlights. Sans was busy staring daggers at the woman, but she paid him no mind, walking up to the chair that had been respectively set up across from the couch Papyrus was sitting on and placed her bag to the side. “ _Oh yes, this is definitely the Papyrus I was told about. [Y/N] said I should be looking for a tall, handsome skeleton who loves puzzles and I'm sure I've found the right Papyrus.”_ You followed quickly and sat on the couch close to Papyrus, grasping one of his hands, _“it’s ok, Papyrus, this is Dr. Simmons. She’s going to be looking at your sockets today and helping find the right pair of glasses for you.”_

Papyrus stared down at you and then back to the doctor who was sitting and patiently waiting.  **_“H-heLlO dOctOr! w-WiLl i ReaLLy Be geTtiNg gLasSeS ToDaY?"_ **  Dr. Simmons smiled warmly as she reached into her pocket for her own pair of glasses,  _ “that’s my goal for today, Papyrus. It is very nice to meet you. It is very nice to meet you as well, [Y/N]” _ She turned in sans’ direction,  _ “I believe you are Papyrus’ brother, sans? I have also been told that anything I will be doing will need your approval to make the both of you comfortable. May I be allowed to examine Papyrus with your approval?” _

Sans was flabbergasted, he honestly didn’t think that the human doctor would be willing to work with his brother, let alone let him be the voice of decision. When they were at the facility, doctors of all sorts poked and prodded them without even so much as, "how are you feeling?" He went over the possible outcomes of letting her examine his brother versus not letting her. It would surely be easier for him to deny her and get her to leave, but then his brother would remain with his poor sight and no doubt become disappointed and sad. Sans couldn’t let that happen, his one goal in life was to make sure his brother kept his happiness as it seemed it was all they had left. He would push aside his fears, but remain vigilant.

_“Sure doc, ‘s fine with me.”_

Dr. Simmons nodded and reached for her bag, pulling out several tools as well as a small notepad and pen. _“Alright, to begin with, I’m going to just take a look at your bone structure. May I touch around your sockets? If there is any pain associated with the touch, let me know immediately and I will stop.”_ She reached into her bag for a small bottle of hand sanitizer and cleaned her hands. The artificial smell of lemon and antibacterial chemicals filled the air as she brought her chair closer to Papyrus. His hand squeezed yours and you squeezed back, continuing to offer support. Dr. Simmons waited for a moment to allow Papyrus to get used to her presence before asking him to bend down.

_“Can you lean your face towards me, please?”_ He moved slowly, carefully and sans tensed in his chair, ready to spring if there was anything evil afoot. She took hold of Papyrus’ jaw very carefully, minding his jagged teeth and felt gently along his cheekbone. _“I see your bone is gaining a bit of color back and feels less brittle. I’ve read over your initial check up and I’ve got to say you are doing remarkably better, Papyrus. We’ll have you back to health in no time.”_ Her thumbs gently pressed on the cheekbone, _“does this hurt at all?”_

Papyrus shook his head no, _“good, good. Ok, now I’m going to feel around your sockets, again if this causes you any discomfort, let me know.”_ On instinct, Papyrus slightly reared back when her hands reached for his sockets and there was the slight sound of tearing as everyone stopped and looked over to sans who was clawing into the chair. Unperturbed, Dr. Simmons brought her hands back and chose another tactic, _“can you raise your hands for me, Papyrus?”_  He nervously let your hand go, holding his up for her to see, “Such beautiful hands, Papyrus. They definitely look like chef's hands." They produced a small smile from him and she continued, _"ok, so I want you to mirror exactly what I do, ok? I can tell that you and your brother are nervous and I do not want to further add to the stress.”_

She held her hands up to her face and using her middle and index fingers pressed gently around her eye sockets, _“take your fingers and press gently around your sockets like this. Can you tell me if there is any pain from doing so?”_ Papyrus watched her as she pressed on her own face and slowly began to do the same. The pressure didn’t hurt so much as feel weird. He had not explored his own face in quite awhile and was shocked to feel just how small his sockets were. 

**_“I dO NoT fEEl aNy PaIn, DoCtoR."_  **Dr. Simmons grabbed her notepad and started writing things down, _“good, good. Now let’s move on to examining the sockets themselves."_ She placed the pad down and reached for a small, slender tool that seemed to have a light on it. Turning to sans, she handed over the tool, _“this is a ophthalmoscope that I will be using to see into your brother’s sockets. It has a magnifying lens and light for me to see into the socket and his eye lights.”_ sans’ claws made a noise as they unhinged themselves from the leather and he took the tool, looking it over. Sure enough, it did have a light on it and the lens was nothing more than just an eye piece. Assured that it meant his brother no harm, he handed it back to her.

_“Papyrus, I’m going to look into your sockets now, for that I will need to get close to your face and peer into your socket. I will not be in your space for long, but if it gets to be to much, I want you to say ‘yellow’”_ Papyrus looked confused, **_“YoU wAnT Me tO sAy 'YeLlOw'? wHy?"_  **Dr. Simmons nodded, _“consider it your safe word from now on, if things get to be too much for you, or even for you, sans, say the word ‘yellow’ and we will take a moment or two to breathe and allow you to calm down.”_ You were relieved that Dr. Simmons was true to her word and was making sure that sans was included in on this examination, including making sure that he was comfortable as well.

A moment or so went past before Papyrus replied, **_“oK, i tHiNk i'M ReAdY."_** Dr. Simmons smiled, _"Papyrus, I’m going to shine this into your socket and see if everything is ok inside. It should be no more than 10 seconds on each socket, alright?”_ She tested the light on the tool and placed it up to her eye and leaned in, staring into his right socket. You watched carefully for any signs of stress on him or sans as she switched to the other eye and then sat back. _“Very good, Papyrus, I do not see any foreign material in your socket, someone has been doing a very good job in keeping it clean.”_ Papyrus brightened and smiled, **_“ClEaNlIneSs Is vErY ImPorTanT, i JusT wIsH ThAt SOME WoUlD Do iT mOrE oFtEn."_**

Papyrus glanced in sans direction as it was evident the jab was made to him. Sans merely shrugged and smiled as Dr. Simmons agreed, _“you are very right, Papyrus. Now, for the last test I need to examine your eye lights, Can you produce your eye lights for me?”_ Suddenly everything went silent, Papyrus froze and then put his head down starting to fidget anxiously as he mumbled something. You grew immediately concerned as did sans, _“what’s wrong Papyrus?”_ He looked up at you and then to sans, who had come up out of the chair to sit beside him, _“yer can tell me, Paps, it’s ok.”_

He looked sad as he glanced back at you and then whispered something to sans. Sans’ good eye light extinguished and his smile dropped. Whatever it was, it was serious enough to further horrify sans. Dr. Simmons had moved back to give them space, but needed to know what was wrong. _“Can you tell me what is wrong, Papyrus? Sans is there a problem with his eye lights?”_ They didn’t say anything as Papyrus began to tear up and cry, worrying you. 

 

Sans replied dejectedly, _“Paps...Paps doesn’t remember how ta use magic.”_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Papyrus can cry and blush, but when it comes to actually using his magic whether it's to use his eye lights, construct bones, or even heal, he has sadly forgotten how to after so many years of surviving in the Underground. His level of magic was stunted partially due to the madness that swept the area, but also just from the lack of using it in favor of physical traps. Magic had to be conserved in order just to survive and there just wasn't enough food to keep it replenished to be used to do other things.
> 
> Ok, so on the topic of the song titles/lyrics, I pick songs that either as a whole go with what I'm trying to write about. Sometimes it's just a few lyrics that I gravitate to like in this one, so if they don't quite make sense to you, I'm sorry. lol I usually have my Spotify on random and if something catches my ear, it's what I'll put the chapter to. I also just suck at chapter titles. I should start a playlist for this story as I think the songs I've picked are good in their own right.


	6. Broken

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> One step forward....two steps back...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> If you had seen // You'd understand // If you had seen // You'll break like me // If you had seen // All the things that I've seen // You'd scream like I screamed // I know // If you had seen // You'd feel like I feel // Empty and broken // I know // I've seen the sky on fire // Seen the oceans dry // Seen the mountains fall // Seen the whole world die ~ Gary Numan - Broken

The room was so quiet, you could've heard a pin clatter to the floor. Papyrus continued to cry as sans sat there emotionless. How could he miss this as well?! He was supposed to take care of his brother, but here he was just now finding out that his brother was completely vulnerable without even so much as the power to heal. He tried to think past the gaping hole in both his skull and memory of their time in the Underground. Their use of Papyrus' physical traps and sans' high magic reserves meant that he never did have to use his own magic. What food they had served to keep what little HP they had and they only just now were able to gain measly points back due to the better living conditions and surely, better food choices. sans was absolutely devastated still, he had failed his brother yet again and that was almost enough to dust him right then and there. He realized you had pulled Papyrus away and was cradling him against your chest, trying to console him, " _ hey now, shh shh shh, it'll be ok, Papyrus. I'm sure sans and I can work on helping getting your magic back. I mean, you're crying now and that takes magic, right? So maybe you haven't completely lost your magic?"  _

You looked to sans and then to the doctor for support ad she removed her glasses, her expression professional, but hopeful.  _ "[Y/N] is right, the fact that you are able to produce tears,  from what I can see a little blushing on your cheekbones, and the fact that you're still very much alive. I think if you were unable to use magic, your very being would not be able to hold itself together. It's evident that you can still produce magic, however, I am not an expert in that area and would need to see a specialist for that."  _ Great, yet another doctor from the facility that would either have to come over or you would have to get sans and Papyrus comfortable enough to leave the home and visit. 

But, you weren't back at square one, merely another obstacle had been added to the journey ahead. Papyrus could get the use of his magic back just like he was going to get his sight and eventually his mouth back in working order. Dr. Simmons reached into her bag and produced a large, intricately designed box and opened it,  _ "while I can do nothing for your magic for now, Papyrus, I can still help get some of your sight back. After that, then we can start working on a plan to gradually begin fixing your other issues. We can work on sans' as well if he sees fit to." _

Papyrus was still teary eyed, but nodded and wiped some of the tear tracks away,  **_"I  wOuLD vErY MuCh aT LeAsT lIkE To sEe tOdAy."_ ** You looked over to sans who had yet to say anything and quite frankly, looked like shit. You tried calling for him,  _ "sans? Hey, can you hear me?"  _ You got up and stood  in front of him and tried to get his attention again,  _ "sans, buddy, are you with us?"  _ Not wanting to invade his space by shaking him, you snapped your fingers in front of his face. He reacted instantly and grabbed your wrist, gently but firmly setting it down,  _ "I hear ya, [Y/N], loud n' clear. I'll be fine."  _ You knew that was a straight up lie, and so did Papyrus.  **_"BrOthEr, yOu muSt sToP kEePiNg tHiNgS tO YouRseLf, wHaT iS tRouBliNg yOu? i...I Am sOrRy FoR keEpiNg mY lAcK Of mAgiC a sEcRet, yOu WeRe jUsT dOiNg sO MuCh tO kEeP Us aFloAt, I-i ThoUghT I CouLd wAiT uNti-"_ **

sans interrupted him,  _ "we'll talk about it later, Paps. Let's get ya some glasses in the meantime."  _ Dr. Simmons was rummaging around in the box and finally produced a rather large set of progressive bifocals. The glasses had large, circular frames and looked just big enough to fit Papyrus' skull with a piece or two of tape on the sides.  _ "Until we can get a specific pair and correct lens ordered, we're going to work with what we have. Can you try looking through these and tell me what you see?"  _ Papyrus shakily took hold of the frames and brought them to his sockets. His sockets were magnified and definitely larger than before as he blinked several times,  **_"I  cAn...i CaN sEe YoU! I cAn SeE yOuR nAmE tAg, iT SaYs: Dr. SiMmOns! sAnS, [y/N], i CaN sEe!!"_ **

Tears of your own misted your eyes to see him so happy. You'd only seen him this happy once before when you all had first moved into the apartment and he was alive with excitement, searching each of the rooms while his brother was transporting things to their rooms upstairs. You should have known there might have been an issue when after a few laps around the house, Papyrus became slightly lethargic and woozy on his feet. You had gotten him to sit on the ground next to the fireplace while you grabbed some juice and crackers for him. It was clearly evident he could not handle short, sudden bursts of adrenaline without it adversely affecting him. That same scenario seemed to be gearing up now as Papyrus nearly vibrated off the couch.  _ "Easy, Papyrus, let me get you some tape." _

You went into the kitchen and found the tape in a drawer, but stood back and watched Papyrus continue to look around the room in awe, and even at his own hands. Sans was watching as well, but you could see that he was still very much affected after learning of Papyrus’ disability. All three of you were going to have to sit down and talk about this and hopefully, figure out a plan to start helping each other. Not that you would ask for that much help, you were fine. The skeleton brothers needed more than you anyway. 

Locating the tape you came back into the living room and two pieces of tape later, Papyrus was now seeing the world with both sockets for the very first time in a very long time. **_“ThAnK yOu, dR. sImMoNs, tHaNk YoU!"_** He stood up and grabbed the doctor in a nearly bone crushing hug. _“Hrk! Y-you’re welcome, Papyrus!”_ Realizing he might have hugged a bit too hard, he gently placed her back down and took a couple steps back, slightly embarrassed, ** _“FoRgIvE mE, i..I fOrGeT My oWn sTrenGtH sOmeTimEs.”_**

Dr. Simmons caught her breath and smiled, _ “you’re not the first big guy to give me a hug like that, and you certainly won’t be the last. Now, here is a magazine I want you to look at. There are different frames you can look at and if you decide to purchase a pair, let me know so I can get them ordered with the correct lenses.” _ Papyrus looked infinitely more excited, **_“I CaN cHoOsE AnOtHeR pAiR Of gLaSsEs?!”_ ** She nodded,  _ “it would probably be best for you to have 3-4 glasses in case something happens to one of them.”  _

Papyrus quickly sat back down on the couch and started perusing the magazine, reveling in the fact that he no longer needed to have reading material right at his face. Dr. Simmons began getting her things together as sans shocked you by holding his hand out to the doctor.  _ “Thanks, Doc, with the glasses I’m sure Paps will be ‘spec’-tacular in no time at all.”  _ Papyrus recognized the pun and groaned as he studied the magazine harder. Dr. Simmons took his hand and gave a firm handshake while with the other, gave a small card,  _ “this is my business card, if you need anything. If and when Papyrus is able to summon his magic, we may need to do another examination as his vision may improve.”  _

Sans faltered a bit and she noticed, _“don’t worry, sans, things might seem bleak right now, but you have a good brother and a good friend who are willing to help you through it.”_ Standing, she pulled one other pair of glasses out that were rose colored and handed them to sans, _“try these out, maybe you’ll see in a new perspective.”_ sans stared at the glasses in his hand and then chuckled as he pocketed them, _“we’ll see, doc, we’ll see”_

You walked Dr. Simmons to the door as Papyrus started showing sans what glasses he wanted from the magazine.  _ “I can’t thank you enough for doing all of this. Dr. Simmons. It really means a lot to me and I’m sure to sans as well that Papyrus can see again.” _ Dr. Simmons smiled and actually drew you into a hug,  _ “you’re a special kind of human, [Y/N], we need more of them like you. Keep in touch, [Y/N], I’m sure we’ll see each other again very soon.” _ You were surprised at the hug, but even more surprised at what she quickly whispered into your ear, _ “brace for impact…”  _ And then she was gone, already down the hall and stepping out the door.

That was...odd. You let the weird feeling pass as you shut the door and locked it, turning back to the happy scene in the living room.  **_“BrOtHeR! bRoThEr, i'M sO HaPpy i cAn SeE aGaIn! i cAn SeE eVeRytHiNg!"_ ** Papyrus jumped up from the couch again and started to sprint around the room, staring closely at everything he could. **_“tHeRe'S sO mUcH To LoOk aT, iNclUdInG yOu! hMpH, yOu'Re sTiLl In nEeD Of a GoOd wAsHiNg, SaNs, BuT wE WiLl dEaL wItH ThAt LaTeR. [y/N]! iT Is sO nIcE tO sEe yOu WiTh BoTh Of mY SoCkEts, tHaNk YoU fOr ThE gLaSsEs! tHaNk YoU fOr..."_ **

Papyrus suddenly stopped and wobbled slightly, his enlarged sockets fluttered and you recognized the telltale warning signs.  _ “Papyrus?” _ You walked towards him which quickly turned into a sprint as Papyrus suddenly slumped to his knees. You caught him before he fell over and started fanning his face. He had passed out quicker than he did from the time before and you could only assume it was from the sudden movement and adrenaline rush. This much of a downfall must have meant Papyrus hadn’t taken his medicine this morning for his energy and your assumptions were confirmed. However, from the look on sans’ face, he did not know of this condition either and had assumed the worse. His eye light was blown wide and pulsing, magic emanating from the large hole in his skull. His smile turned cold and hard as he glared at you and raised his magic covered hand.

 

_ “Sans, he’s alright! He’s just-” _

 

That same pressure from last night appeared again as you were forced immobile. Sans stalked over slowly and grasped your wrist that was fanning Papyrus’ skull roughly causing you to cry out. _ “What’d I say was gonna happen if somethin’ happened ta Papyrus, hmm? Ya just waited until ya knew Paps was vulnerable?! Should’ve never trusted yer, humans like you...should  _ **_B U R N  I N  H E L L._ **

You tried to shake your head, but you couldn’t move under the increasing pressure, _ “sans, I didn’t do anything! I’m not hiding anything from you! I think he’s just passed out from the sudden adrenaline rush! I was just trying to help! He...he needs some juice and crackers once he wakes up! Please, he’s done this before!!”  _ The grip on your wrist tightened as you were suddenly thrown away from Papyrus to collide with the dresser in the hallway.  _ “I think yer done helpin’.”  _

Tossed suddenly through the air, the doctor’s words echoed in your head as your body crashed into the dresser. Your vision whited out as the sound of cracking wood exploded and your shoulder took the brunt of the hit. Your ankle hit the corner of the furniture and blinding pain surged upwards to meet the side pain that was coming down. You crumpled to the floor in shock as pain overtook everything and then mercifully blacked out. 

 

This feeling was all too familiar.

 

Sans glared at your motionless body and then back down to his brother, his vision and magic calming slightly. What in stars’ name had happened today?! It was bad enough learning Papyrus had no control over his magic and then... **_the human_ ** had the audacity to do something to hurt him. He didn’t know what you had done, but it didn’t matter now.  Kneeling down, he pulled his brother into his lap and nuzzled his forehead into his,  _ “yer can’t leave me, Paps. Brothers can’t leave each other behind. Wherever you go, I go, remember?” _ He stayed there for a few minutes until Papyrus suddenly started to stir,  **_“NyEh, wH-WhAt hApPEnED?"_ **  Papyrus’ enlarged eye sockets opened once more and he struggled to sit up, shaking his head.  **_“dId i PaSs oUt AgAiN?"_ **

Sans’ eye light disappeared in surprise and confusion, _ “did you pass out...again? Whaddya mean again?!”  _ Papyrus rubbed his head,  **_“nYeH nOt So lOuD, sAnS. tHe dOcTorS SaY If i GeT tOo eXcItEd, It'S ToO mUcH FoR My bOdY tO hAnDlE. tHe MedIciNe i GoT fRoM OnE oF ThE nIcE DoCtOrS HeLps, BuT i FeEl LikE I wEnT a bIt OvErbOarD. i Don'T tHiNk i ToOk tHeM ToDaY eItHeR. [Y/n] UsuAlLy gEtS mE SoMe aPpLe jUiCe aNd cRacKerS IF i StArT fEeLiNg wOoZy. nYeH, wHeRe DiD....sHe...gO?"_ **

Papyrus trailed off as he and sans turned to stare when you started to make noises, small whimpers and sobs as you pulled yourself to your knees. Your left shoulder burned like Hell and you tried to center your breathing amidst the pain. Honestly, you didn’t know where you were, all you felt was pain. You could feel someone watching you and your flight instinct triggered. You needed to get away before anything else could happen. Eyes opening, but unseeing, tears fell in large streams as you tried to stand up, but it was clear your left foot had been badly injured as well. Collapsing back down to the ground, you groaned and dragged yourself on your uninjured side, whispering something over and over again that the brothers could just barely make out. 

 

_ “I’m sorry, Jeremy, I’m sorry. I won’t do it again, please...please don’t hurt me anymore…”  _

 

Sans and Papyrus watched in horrified silence as you pulled yourself across the floor and into your room, shutting the door, and hearing the lock eventually click followed by your agonized sobs. Papyrus turned to sans looking for answers, but he was still staring at the closed door with a shocked expression on his normally stoic face. Papyrus’ worst fear had come to fruition as he demanded to know what exactly just happened,

 

**_“WhAt dId YoU dO, BrOtHeR, wHaT hAvE yOu DoNe?”_ **

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ummmm....so everything is at a serious no bueno stage right now. :c Nobody's handling their problems like they should and then they all collide with one another. Yikes. This is actually the exact scene that this fic is based on and consider it the height of angsty junk. Now I just want to focus on the future chapters of improving the three of 'em to where we can actually have nice chapters with goodly things instead of hammering Papyrus into the ground with angst he doesn't deserve. I mean, sans and you don't deserve it either, but Paps is the all important cinnaskellyroll.
> 
> *hurriedly submits chapter then exits everything in fear of it all*


	7. Someday Part 1

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Let's rewind a bit and figure out just where all this angst is coming from, shall we?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> How the hell'd we wind up like this? // Why weren't we able // To see the signs that we missed // Try and turn the tables? ~ Nickelback - Someday

Papyrus wasn’t always magic-less. 

 

Papyrus actually had an over abundance of magic at one point, he just preferred not to use it as much. Something about it being lazy or something or other. He could produce mass amounts of bones, which would be stolen by Toby most of the time, much to his dismay. Papyrus tried to be non confrontational in most situations and would not stoop to using magic right off the bat, rather he would try and defuse the situation and would ONLY bring his magic out if the situation was critical. Even sans wasn't really sure how much magic his brother had given the lack of it he'd seen. He knew that Papyrus was strong though. A cool guy such as he had to have at least some awesome power. For now though, he was fine with Papyrus' fascination with physical puzzles, besides he only used his magic to strategically place socks on the ground and obtain bottles of ketchup while he lay on the couch.

But then the human arrived. They seemed harmless enough, though Papyrus had never met one before this encounter, so of course he greeted them in true Papyrus fashion, by subjecting them to his mastermind puzzles. Sans seemed less enthused to see the human and his grin was hard whenever the kid was around and he went out of his way to keep tabs on Papyrus. He’d never say why he was so uptight with the human, he thought they were nice, they called him all the time….like, all. the. time. After they had mastered all of his puzzles, he deemed them worthy and let them pass.

Honestly, he didn’t even want to fight them when he knew he had to do so in order to capture them. If anything, they seemed to be pretty dense when it came to fighting as they were constantly tripped up under his attacks and after 3 rather painful to watch encounters, he decided to spare them another beat down and let them pass on through to Waterfall with instructions on how to escape the Underground. They surprised him by coming back to his house wanting to hangout, which he gladly did and gave them his phone number for strictly friend purposes. He sadly had to fend off their advances as he did not feel the same way that they did for him. Oh well, at least he made a friend!

He still kind of regretted giving the number to the human as they seemed to call him ALL THE TIME. The minute he would answer the phone and after figuring out where they were or what they were doing to give them an opinion based on it and hang up, the phone seemed to ring off the hook again. He knew he wanted to be popular, but this was just ridiculous! Eventually after a certain point, the human stopped calling and there was an incident at the castle where it was let known Asgore had died, but the human had made it across the barrier. sans only said that the human was not the one to kill the King, but nothing more. That somewhat gave him closure as he would have hated himself for not realizing the tiny human was actually a threat. After a month or so with no ruler, The Queen emerged from the RUINS and took her place on the throne, advising a new policy that all other humans that fell were not to be treated as enemies, but as friends.

Everyone was pretty upset that King Fluffybuns died, but the Queen tried her best to keep everyone hopeful that they would escape the mountain another way. The human nor any other human ever fell again and years passed with many of the denizens falling into despair as their rations dwindled away to little more than nothing. Papyrus had been promoted to the Guard, to which he was elated to finally receive that honor, but found that most of what the Guard duties meant was to patrol their respective jurisdictions and keep the peace. Ok, so it was a little different than what he was originally training for with Undyne, but Papyrus was good at keeping the peace! 

After the Queen took the throne and announced her new policy, Papyrus saw very little of Undyne after the human disappeared. He knew that she had more responsibilities now that she was serving the Queen and basically her right hand….fish woman? But she was noticeably absent at the Guard meetings and even Alphys had no idea where she had gone and was worried 24/7. He hoped she was ok wherever she was, he hated seeing Alphys so troubled. Papyrus tried in vain to keep everyone motivated and positive even as their rations were slowly stripped away to mere table scraps. While Papyrus was patrolling, sans could be found with Alphys in her lab working tirelessly to find another way out of the mountain. He’d never seen sans work so hard before and was so proud of him! At one point, it seemed like they were onto something and went to present their findings to the Queen. Papyrus had gone with to observe his brother’s work, even though he understood very little of the science-y stuff and hoped to get a chance to catch up with other monsters that he had not seen in some time, including Undyne. Nothing could have prepared him, or the others, for what was going to happen…

Sans and Alphys were halfway into their presentation to the tired, but very much engaged looking Queen when the doors of the throne room were suddenly blown open. Smoke filled the room and Papyrus immediately took his place in front of the Queen, Papyrus stood in a defensive position as the smoke cleared and a lone figure stood amidst the wreckage. Alphys went wide eyed as the figure emerged turned into Undyne, clad in her battle armor that was covered in dust, glowing spear in hand with a number of monsters behind her. Her one good eye was wild as she strolled in with a wide grin on her face. Sans held his ground as she approached the throne, demanding revenge against the humans. Queen Toriel tried to pacify the situation and calm everyone, but it only seemed to further enrage the fish woman as she threw the first spear towards the Queen.

Sans moved quicker than Papyrus had ever seen, his eye light exploding in a flash of blue and yellow as he battled Undyne back. Papyrus had never seen his brother fight before and it was both amazing and terrifying at the same time. He had little time to stare as the monsters that trailed in behind Undyne started to come at him for the Queen. Papyrus had never actually had to literally “fight” someone and was rusty with his bone clubs that he produced and tried to merely keep the monsters at bay versus cause them harm. He had to recollect what little Guard training Undyne gave him and improvise the rest to keep himself and the Queen safe.

He kept an eye light on his brother who was dodging spears and sending his own bone attacks against Undyne as she drew closer and closer. Alphys was crying beside a pillar, screaming for Undyne to stop. Eventually, one of Papyrus’ clubs made contact with a wild monster and sent it hurling back into a pillar where it slumped to the ground and did not move. Papyrus was horrified as he had to continue beating his opponents back, speaking to them would not work and if he did nothing, he and the Queen would surely perish. He looked over to see sans was starting to tire, given his 1 HP, using so much magic was taking a toll.

There was a slight pause in their attacks and Alphys ran out towards Undyne, pleading for them to stop fighting when she was stopped in her tracks by an errant spear to the chest. She looked down in shock and then up to her supposed girlfriend, searching for answer...why? She collapsed to the ground as her body dusted and blew in the drafty air of the throne room. Papyrus was now beyond horrified, Undyne, his friend, had not only dusted another fellow monster, but she had dusted her own girlfriend. She bent down and grabbed a fistful of dust, wiping it across her armor and whispered something about avenging her with the death of the Queen and marched forward, not caring as her boots trampled through the rest of Alphys’ still warm dusty remains.

Sans was straining as he produced another volley of bones that were quickly sent in Undyne’s direction. She was ready for it and jumped out of the way before quickly vaulting herself towards sans. He realized what was happening and gathered his magic for one big attack as a large monstrous skeletal skull fell from the void, ready to blast at Undyne. Everything then seemed to slow as she did not attack, but soared over him as the Gaster Blaster came into being. Sans turned to execute the attack when Undyne came down with a summoned spear and bashed open his skull, sending him sliding across the floor. The summoned Gaster Blaster seem to glitch before letting out a high pitched screech and cracking into nothing.

Papyrus was stunned...and then livid. More livid than he had ever felt before as his magic coursed through him and he let out an agonized scream. His eye lights exploded in his sockets as large bones began to rip up from the ground, catching Undyne off guard. Leaving his post, he made a beeline for Undyne, smacking monsters who crossed his path viciously out of the way. Undyne, on her part, was surprised that Papyrus had this much power. It nearly overtook her as his bone made contact with her face, sending her flying back into a pillar. Crouching down, he began pouring healing magic into his brother as his HP was in the low decimals and what was left of his skull was starting to turn to powder. 

Anyone that dared to come up to the brothers were met with a bone jutting out from the floor, nearly impaling them or gouging some sort of limb. Papyrus was solely focused on keeping his brother alive, everything else was just background noise. He was terrified that he would lose sans, and if that were to happen….he wouldn’t know what to do with himself. As his decimals slowly rose, Papyrus felt a figure come up behind, could feel the hostile magic hovering over him. He could hear Undyne talking, her words crazy and confusing. Something about getting all the monsters together for one final war against the humans, to finally pacify their revenge for the humans that constantly plagued them and if you weren’t with her, you were just free EXP. The sharp sound of her spear echoed in his head, but still he continued to focus on his brother. If they dusted, then they would dust together and spare each other of being alone without the other.

Undyne screamed as she brought the spear down, but when Papyrus did not feel anything, he looked back to see Queen Toriel holding flames in her hands, her expression filed with sorrow. Undyne was again on the floor, her scales singed with the Queen’s attack. Picking up sans, the Queen called to her faithful soldier and cast him away back to Snowdin, to protect himself and his brother, as well as any other surviving population of monsters. Papyrus was torn, but as a direct order from the Queen he ran out of the throne room. The Queen was left to battle the remaining monsters as the throne room was engulfed in flames and Undyne struggled to her feet to battle the Boss Monster for the throne. Papyrus ran out and past the carnage that the rest of the castle was in, all the way back home where he placed his brother in his own bed and collapsed to the ground beside it, holding his hand and sobbed out loud.

What had happened?! Why did Undyne turn on all of them and oh my stars, Alphys was DEAD! This had to be some horrible nightmare that he was having, like the ones that sans would have. If only he could wake up! He looked down at his brother, where his healing was doing very little to the giant hole in his skull, but at least he wasn't dusted and gone. Papyrus started pouring more healing magic into his brother, realizing that he himself had a few HP nicked in the battle. He worried for Queen Toriel and the fate of the rest of the monsters, but mostly he worried for sans. He did so much for him, now it was time for Papyrus to take care of his brother.

Over the next few days, he would spend a few hours siphoning healing magic into his brother and waiting, waiting for signs that the Queen was still alive. sans was still unconscious and Papyrus felt he had poured all that he could into sans' health as it finally ticked back to a full 1 HP. The hole had somewhat regained some bone, but was very much still open. Papyrus was unsure that it would ever heal and with...with Alphys gone, there was no one to give him an evaluation. Papyrus only went out to gather what food he could and most of the time it was from Grillby's. Two weeks passed and the news he was waiting on came from one of the remaining residents in Snowdin. A yellowed piece of paper froze the marrow in his bones as his worst fears came true. Toriel was gone and now Undyne was Queen of the Underground.

A flurry of laws came into fruition, the re-establishment of the King's Royal Guard, which was now the Queen's Battalion. Any and all monsters were required to report for training for the war ahead. Those who resisted were killed and their EXP collected by the more ruthless monsters. Snowdin seemed to be the last remaining safe haven as monsters came to Papyrus for help and guidance. He was at a loss, only urging them to stick to their homes and avoid the main thoroughfare where Undyne's soldiers patrolled, looking for free EXP. Soon, there were only a few remaining monsters in Snowdin, most had retreated deep into the forests to hide while Papyrus stayed at home, keeping watch over sans. Grillby eventually closed down his bar to relocate to Hotland to a secret spot where he and Fuku could be safe. He came to the house and handed a bag of burgers and fries along with a bag full of ketchup for sans.

Papyrus took them up to his room where sans slept. He had regained consciousness only a day or so ago and was only awake for a few minutes at a time. When Papyrus came up to see if he could be woken up for something to eat, he was surprised to see sans was awake and sitting on the edge of his bed. The room was eerily cold and when he called out to his brother, sans slowly turned to face him and his one working eye light on the cracked side of his skull was blood red and he smiled at Papyrus. 

**_"heya, bro."_ **

* * *

Papyrus could no longer remember what the date was. He only knew of the passing time due to blinking clock that somehow still worked on his bedside table. Their food supply was completely gone and the brothers had taken to scavenging for food. Papyrus was worried about sans, his eye light was permanently manifested and was that sickly red color that put him on edge. sans would never hurt him though, if anything, when he awoke sans was constantly keeping an eye on him, never letting him out of sight. When the final scraps of food were gone, Papyrus was at a loss of what to do. He didn't want to starve to dust, that was a horrible way to go, but there was nothing left! He began to cry at the table over the empty bowl when sans came up to him, saying he was going out to get some grub and to not leave the house.

sans gave him no time to object before he was gone, teleporting somewhere outside the house. Papyrus waited for hours, staring at the clock and then the door, growing increasingly more worried when sans suddenly teleported right where he started from, much to Papyrus' relief. That relief quickly turned to horror when sans was covered in blood and held a bag of something that was dripping to the floor. His ever present smile was wider, the same type that Undyne had when she attacked them those months before. He said nothing as sans dropped the bag on the table and sat on the other side, waiting for him to open the bag first. Papyrus didn't want to open it, he was a smart skeleton and could easily put two and two together with the blood on his brother's hoodie, the drenched bag, and the overwhelming smell of fresh death. 

When it was clear Papyrus wasn't going to open the bag, sans' eye light widened as the bag suddenly rose and flipped, spilling the contents onto the table. Mutilated pieces of several monsters tumbled out as Papyrus screamed and backed away from the table. sans grabbed onto a limb and started tearing meat away from the bone as he stared at him while he ate. One piece gone, sans replied that if they were to survive, that meant that they would have to do some things they never thought were possible. If it meant to console Papyrus by saying these limbs belonged to 'Dyne's soldiers, it did very little as Papyrus raced from the kitchen and up to his room to huddle in his closet. Why had this happened?! Where did the humans go?! Why did he let them go when all they needed was that final soul?!

His soul hurt so much, it was partially his fault that this happened. That Alphys, the King, Toriel, countless other monsters were dead and now the literal monster his brother had turned into, it was too much. He continued to sob in his closet before the door opened and he startled as sans stared down at him. He dropped down beside him and pulled him into his lap, hugging him close and stroking his skull. They would be alright, they had each other and sans would take care of him as he would let Papyrus take care of him. Everything would be ok, he promised and Papyrus smiled through his tears. sans didn't make many promises, but when he did, he meant them with all his soul.

~~~~

The shrill sound of a monster's scream echoed through the dark forest. The unlucky monster had been caught in a trap hidden in the dirty snow and had one of its limbs snared in large bear trap that was then pulled up to dangle the poor monster in the air. The monster struggled to free itself when a twig snapped in the nearby brush. Struggling further, the trap eventually severed the caught limb and the monster dropped to the ground in pain. Another twig snapped and the monster looked up into the forest line to see a single blood red eye light staring back out at them. The figure with the eye light drew closer to reveal a considerably larger sans, his hoodie and shirt covered in blood, who was simply smiling at the wounded monster. 

_ "Aw, c'mon buddy, my bro put sweat n' blood in ta this piece o' work. Ya tryin' ta leave before he sees his work thru is rude." _

The monster tried to backpedal with what limbs it had before crashing into something firm. As it looked up, it met the tiny pinprick sockets and darkened, uneven teeth crooked into a smile that was Papyrus' face. He was considerably taller as well, his battle body in tatters as he hunched over to meet the frightened monster's face. In his hand, he held a plate....of what looked like spaghetti, but it was dripping something dark and coagulated as it splattered onto the monster's face.

_**"HeLlO fRiEnD! i InSiSt yOu TrY mY sPaGhEtTi!"** _

The monster's screams were short lived as another new friend was quickly added to the menu.

Bone Appétit!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Holy schnikes, I really enjoyed writing this chapter and it was a bit longer than the others. :o There's far, far less dialogue, but boy do I love writing backstory. lol Comments are welcomed as I'm still stunned this is getting comments, let alone views. XD


	8. Someday Part 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Someday, somehow // I'm gonna make it alright but not right now // I know you're wondering when // (You're the only one who knows that) ~ Nickelback - Someday

The day Papyrus was inducted into the Royal Guard, sans couldn’t have been more proud of his younger brother, despite the circumstances that led to this occasion happening. After the human had crossed over the Barrier and news got out that King Asgore had been slain, sans was surprisingly enough, pretty happy. Something just felt different about the kid’s departure this time, maybe this was finally the run where they got the hint that they weren’t wanted down here anymore. Not after the last couple of runs they subjected the Underground to…

Initially, the kid fell into the Underground was pacifist all the way to the point he saw for the first...and then for the very last time until they were to escape the Underground using other means. Sans couldn’t even describe the feeling he felt looking at the sunrise for the first time, seeing the city below the mountain, and smelling the clean, fresh air that was the Surface. The stars at night were better than what the textbooks described, it almost felt like he could reach out and grab one. He didn’t think the kid would actually make it possible for them to escape, but they did and things were just great for those couple of years.

And then it all came crashing down when sans woke one morning to the sight of his old, dingy room in the Underground home, hearing Papyrus yell at him from the other side of his door that he was going to be late for sentry duty and that he was going on patrol for humans. Sans thought maybe it was joke and tried to address with Papyrus, but all he got was confusion and more confusion. They were really back in the Underground, like what had happened was merely a dream. Sans couldn’t possibly believe that the kid was behind this, they had PROMISED him that they wouldn’t reset!

Sans soon learned just how brittle a promise could be if one really didn’t mean it. He stumbled through the days in the Underground, trying his damnedest to not just break down and lose it. He went through the same dialogue, the same motions as before, nearly tripping on the deja vu of it all. The day the human came through the doorway from the Ruins, sans knew something wasn’t right. The child bore a sharp smile across their face, emotionless eyes, and had a fine layer of dust covering them from head to toe. This human had killed, and killed many in the Ruins. Sans was appalled, this was the same child that got them all the way to the Surface? Who befriended everyone they met along way now turned monster killer? 

He didn’t crack though, he did the same dialogue before, but stuttered a bit when the human showed no sign of emotions, not to the whoopee cushion, the jokes, not him at all. He hoped they would continue to at least ‘act’ human when they met Papyrus. Sauntering off, he quickly ‘ported away and met up with Papyrus. He could’ve been sweating bullets if he could as the uneasiness spread up his spine. The human went through Papyrus’ puzzles like they already knew the solution and when it finally came time for them to ‘battle’ Papyrus...they gave him no mercy at all.

Sans watched Papyrus death from afar, absolutely devastated. Through his anger and tears he listened to Papyrus’ dying breaths that he still hoped the child could do better, that he still believed them. Fuck, his brother really was too good for this world, and certainly too good to be killed by a merciless child. But sans didn’t outright attack, he stayed in the shadows and let his anger simmer, let his magic boil in his bones as the child continued on their warpath, destroying any and everyone that came into their path. He eventually went down to the snowy path and picked up Papyrus’ scarf, his tears falling from his sockets to stain the dusted fabric and then onto the dust. There would be a time and place to give judgment and so, he would wait.

He waited until the last hallway before the King and merely asked them if they thought the worst person could change, really putting emphasis on his tone. The child didn’t answer and merely stepped forward, ready to challenge him wearing the same smile that greeted him from the Ruins. Sans merely shrugged and complied, pulling the demon child into a long, arduous battle that he thought to be winning for the majority of it. Time and time again, he beat the child and they reset and spawned again until he grew tired and one final blow took him by surprise as he slumped to the ground. As his body began to dust, he closed his sockets and saw Papyrus, the other monsters greeting them and he hoped, he pleaded that this was the end and that there would be no more suffering. Oh how wrong he was…

Instead of an everlasting sleep, he woke screaming in his room once more, another reset had happened again and sans was so angry, so beside himself with rage. He found himself waking more and more times like this, sometimes the human would kill Papyrus, sometimes they would spare him and so and and so forth for the other monsters. The demon child was treating this like a never ending game, just toying with him after realizing that sans could remember the resets, too. Sans lost count of how many times he ‘killed’ the child just as he lost the amount of times they ‘killed’ him. The madness would have to end eventually, right? They couldn’t be stuck in this time warp death trap forever.

Then came the change. The last and final time that child would emerge from the Ruins doors, but this time there was no dust on the child’s clothing. The look on their face was sorrowful and while they continued to stay mute,they were very much staying pacifist on this run. Sans wasn’t a fool though, he stayed close and watched every single movement, when it came to battling Papyrus, he already could hear the dusty breaths...but there was nothing, except for pained cries of the child as Papyrus’ bones came into contact with them as they tried to dodge. Sans was definitely puzzled at this, why were they acting this way? They failed and nearly perished before Papyrus spared them and put them in his shed. 

Two or three times more this happened and sans could not wrap his skull around it. After all the murderous runs, why were they now playing this like it was their first time doing this?! The child spared Papyrus, took his phone number, had a hangout with him, and then continued onward toward the King’s Castle. Sans was so shocked that his brother was still alive that he ‘ported out of nowhere behind Papyrus to hug him tight and scared him senseless. Papyrus was thoroughly confused, but reassured him that the human was their friend and now on their long way home.

Sans watched from afar as they befriended everyone, even calling Papyrus all. the. time. At the Judgment Hall, he went through his usual banter, noting that the human gained no LOVE, but amassed a ton of love in their journey here. They would again determine the fate of themselves and the Underground. Before he left, the human made a gesture, curling their hand into a fist and rotating it round and round on their chest. He didn’t know what that meant then, but they were actually trying to apologize before they made their way into the king’s chambers. That was the last time sans ever saw the human.

Shortly after, the news broke out that King Asgore was killed. The Underground was in shambles until Queen Toriel returned from the Ruins to rule once more. Changes were made to the laws as she advised any other human to fall would no longer be treated as an enemy, but as a friend. Some time passed and sans realized they still had the human’s number and left a message with them. He updated on what they were all doing and that they would find a way out eventually. He ended the call hoping though, that he never had to meet them again. They had done too much damage and good riddance to them and proceeded to delete their number, never to contact again.

* * *

 

Some months had passed and change had come to the Underground. Toriel was ruling in the King’s place and everyday was trying to bring the monsters together and keep their hopes up for an eventual freedom. She had ordered Alphys to begin research on another way to get them out of the Underground and sans quickly took to helping out as well. He needed a hobby anyway what with Papyrus finally being accepted into the Royal Guard and begun his new duties. He couldn’t be happier for Papyrus. It was anything and everything that he trained for and it was surreal to finally see Toriel induct him into the Guard as Captain of the Snowdin division.

Now that there were no more battles or fights with humans, the duties had shifted slightly, in that Papyrus was charged with keeping up with the plant life around Snowdin, which was very little, and keeping the peace. Papyrus excelled at the latter and grew to be quite popular around the small town. With the new job, he was home less and sans realized he didn’t have to keep watch on him as much and he definitely, DEFINITELY needed a hobby besides running up his bill at Grillby’s. So, he gathered what he had in the secret lab behind the house, including plans from an unknown scientist, his old lab coat, and of course, his glasses.

Alphys nearly keeled over in surprise when sans stepped into the lab minus his trademark jacket and in a lab coat, ready to do some science. Alphys eventually regained her senses and sans moved into a nearby desk, spreading out the notes and plans for some sort of teleportation machine. He and Alphys spent countless hours going over mechanics and equations. They would study long into the night until sans was asleep at his desk and Papyrus would come to take him home. Papyrus would question where Undyne was and she would go quiet. Undyne did not take the passing of Asgore that well with him basically being an uncle to her. 

Alphys said that she had gone back to Waterfall for the past few months to mourn and while she tried to call her everyday to check on her, the calls were either short or went unanswered. Alphys worried about her as did Papyrus, but they needed to get their research ready for a presentation in front of the Queen. They had come to a point where they believed they were on the right track to a way to get out of the mountain, but needed far more energy and wanted to make use of the CORE. They had to get royal permission though before they could research any further.

The day of the presentation was light and uneventful. Papyrus guided sans and Alphys through the hallways and before sans walked into the throne room, paused in the Judgment Hall, recollecting past events. Papyrus eventually broke him out of his memories and they proceeded into the throne room to set up. Queen Toriel looked very tired, but was very much engaged and took everything they said, asking questions and demanding explanations. Sans thought the presentation was going pretty well and they were just about to start wrapping it up when the doors were suddenly blown open.

Smoke filed the room as sans held Alphys as she cowered in his arms. He looked up to see Papyrus move in front of the Queen as her defense. Sans looked back into the clearing smoke to see a figure coming through the doorway. Alphys gasped as sans took on a defensive posture of his own, watching Undyne closely as she stomped into the room. Clad in her armor that was covered in dust, with a group of equally dusty monsters behind her, she pointed her spear at the queen and screamed her plot for revenge against the humans and the demand for the throne.

Toriel tried to talk everyone down, pleading for peace, but Undyne turned her blind eye towards the Queen and threw her spear at her, sparking the battle. Sans’ eye light exploded in a flurry of blue and yellow as shoved Alphys aside and summoned his bone attacks to throw at Undyne. Papyrus had summoned his own bone clubs to try and keep the Queen safe as sans prayed he would be kept safe as well from the madness. Undyne was continuing forward, dodging bones and throwing spears at him. He was starting to tire out, even fighting the human wasn’t this exhausting, but the constant volley of attacks was getting to him.

A slight pause from both of them as they caught their breath had Alphys scrambling out from behind the pillar, running towards Undyne sobbing for her to stop this mindless violence. Sans couldn’t prepare himself for what happened next as a spear suddenly shot out the back of Alphys’ lab coat. Alphys seized up and could only whisper, “why?” before collapsing into dust. Sans was stunned, his friend and lab assistant was dead before his very eyes and by her own girlfriend. Undyne knelt down and grabbed a handful of her dust, spreading it across her armor before standing and stalking towards the Queen.

Sans produced another set of bones and threw them, watching as Undyne was ready for them and jumped out of the way to then spring towards him. His energy dwindling, he summoned what was left for a last attack and from the void he called forth a Gaster Blaster. Everything slowed as she jumped for him and he summoned at the same time, only for a sudden crash of pain hit his skull. Undyne had completed vaulted over him and as he turned to sic his Blaster on her, she brought down the spear into his skull. There was a flash of pain...the sound of Papyrus’ anguished screams...and then nothing at all…

The darkness that was his unconscious mind was startling. Sans felt like he was stuck in an endless void of nothingness, hearing faint whispers of his brother that he tried desperately to hold onto. There was too much time to sit and think, to allow his memories to muddle together as he wondered how this gone so wrong. The human kept reappearing and sans grew angry once more as he was assaulted with Papyrus’ death over and over again. He couldn’t just lay down and die, he couldn’t leave Papyrus alone. He would survive, he would waken soon. Papyrus must be protected at all cost.

Sans finally woke fully for the first time to Papyrus’ darkened room and sat up slowly. His skull pounded heavily as he brought a hand up and winced at the still large hole in his head. Everything was fuzzy as he tried to summon his eye lights and he winced again as his left eye light flickered once, twice, and then nearly engulfed the socket in a bright red hue. He couldn’t see out of his right socket, it was just dark, his sight taken from him. Where was Papyrus? He couldn’t have gotten from the throne room all the way back to Snowdin by himself.

The sound of the door opening had him freezing in place, only settling when his brother entered carrying food from Grillby’s. Papyrus’ voice trailed off as sans turned, his expression turning to horror when sans growled out to him, **_“heya, bro.”_ ** Once sans calmed Papyrus down, Papyrus started to explain the turn of events that had happened these past few months while we he was comatose. After the blow to the skull, Papyrus had struck Undyne away from him and tried to pour as much healing as he could. Undyne had come up behind him and planned to murder him in cold dust. 

Papyrus explained through tears that he was ready to die if it meant he and sans would be together in death. He didn’t want one to survive without the other and when the blow didn’t come, he looked back to see Queen Toriel had thrown one of her fireball attacks and struck Undyne away. She then ordered him to bring sans back to the house and protect what citizens he could. Things quickly spiraled out of control as Papyrus waited for word from the Queen, only to get a notice that Toriel had been slain and Undyne now had command to the throne and was forcing every abled monster to report for training for the war against the humans.

In the middle of healing sans and guiding Snowdin and surrounding settlements to safety deep within the forest, he made a final stop to Grillby’s as he and Fuku were escaping to a secret spot in Hotland. Papyrus honestly didn’t expect to see him sitting upright in his bed and even less expected the new blood red eye light he now had. Sans was beginning to get paranoid every time Papyrus left the house to get food or take care of other monsters. Sans couldn’t afford to lose his brother again and even worse, Papyrus seemed to be frightened of him.

Staring at himself in the mirror, he could see why. The constant red eye light, large gaping hole in his skull, and his ever present smile had twisted him into a terrifying sight. Despite his looks, he would never hurt his brother. He would do anything for him. A N Y T H I N G. Soon, days blended into weeks and sans couldn’t tell you what day it was even if you bribed him with ketchup. His only focus was Papyrus. One day, sans went downstairs when he heard his brother sobbing at the kitchen table. Papyrus cried to him that all the food had finally been eaten and that they had no more food. He didn’t want to starve to dust and to see Papyrus this upset snapped something in sans.

Without missing a beat, he told Papyrus he was going out for some grub and to stay inside. He didn’t give his brother a chance to reply before he ‘ported away to the middle of Snowdin. The main street was deserted with crumbling buildings and scorched land. Armed guards patrolled, looking for easy EXP or more recruits as sans watched from behind a building. His red eye light expanded as all sounds drowned out except for the beating of the monsters’ souls in front of him. One of the guards placed his ax down to sift through some wreckage and sans quickly ‘ported to it and grabbed it.

 

If Papyrus was hungry, he would bring home dinner tonight.

 

Papyrus didn’t take the initial ‘food’ he brought home well. Actually, it was probably the most scared he’d ever seen his brother and it only grew as sans’ own nonexistent stomach growled and he toppled the bloody bag of remains onto the table. Papyrus screamed and backed away from the table as sans reached over and started eating the meat off the monster’s limb. It had a slight salty taste to it, like Grillby’s fries mixed with the ketchup he drenched them in. After consuming one limb, he felt stronger, even as his HP stayed at the max of 1. Between loud, cracking bites sans had hoped to calm his brother by saying he’d taken these from ‘Dyne’s bastard soldiers, but it seemed to do little as Papyrus backed away and up the stairs to his room.

Sans sighed and gathered the dripping limbs back into the bag and put them in the empty fridge. He could try getting him to eat later, right now he needed to console his baby brother, convince him that everything was going to be ok and that he would protect him in this time of distress. Sans found Papyrus huddled up in his closet and crying, shuddering away when he opened the door. Sans shuffled in and shut the door, sitting down next to his brother, pulling him into an embrace. Eventually Papyrus wrapped his arms around him and sobbed quietly as sans stroked his skull. He whispered to his little brother that everything would be ok and how proud he was of him that he could still stay so positive about everything. He would take care of him, protect him, as Papyrus would do for him as well. As long as they had each other, they would persevere, and he promised it with all of his soul _and meant it._

\------------------------

sans had to admit, Papyrus puzzles and traps could be quite deadly on their own, even if he thought they were perfect for catching more 'friends'. One such 'friend' had found themselves dangling from a nearly severed limb that had sans salivating in the shadows. Not many monsters went to the edge of the forest, so this was a real treat. As the monster struggled, he made himself known as he stepped on a limb and drew closer to the opening. The monster panicked and the limb severed completely dropping them into the dirty snow. Emerging from the shadows, sans was still getting used to staring down at his prey with his new height and build. Collecting EXP was one thing...but _consuming_ it was entirely different. It twisted them, shifting them into bigger, faster monsters, dividing the margin between predator and prey by a large margin.

The monster panicked further upon his entrance and started scrambling away on what limbs they had even as sans growled his threat to wait for his brother to emerge as well. His newly sharp toothed grin spread across his face as he watched the monster knock straight into Papyrus' legs. Their gaze pulled upwards into the hunched over face of his brother. The madness had not been kind to his brother, his sockets shrunken in and his teeth a mangled mess after consuming bones from the less fortunate monster. In his hands he held his latest spaghetti creation, a real treat if you ask sans. With a shrill voice, his brother welcomed the new friend before sans struck, cleaving the other limb off and silencing the monster's screams with one final swipe.

Dinner was all you can eat tonight~

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Uh, did I say the last chapter was long?? Because this one felt even longer to write. >_< But omg, this was so much fun to write despite again for all the bad angst! sans definitely has it worse than his brother, it's no wonder he is the way he is after they emerged from the Underground. 
> 
> I most likely will not get the 3 part with our reader's backstory up until late next week due to going on a short vacation this weekend, so I hope these two angst filled chapters will suffice! XD Btdubs, if I have made any continuity errors, please let me know. I try to catch them when I flub up, but I know I might be missing some stuff.
> 
> Comments and angry gibberish are welcomed! Enjoy~


	9. Someday Part 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Now the story's played out like this // Just like a paperback novel // Let's rewrite an ending that fits // Instead of a Hollywood horror ~ Nickelback - Someday

The entire house was deathly still. Your room remained dark and the bed looked like it hadn't been slept in at all. You never emerged from your room after the incident happened 2 days ago.

There was not a single sound coming from your room except for the occasional muffled sob. Papyrus had stood outside your door for what seemed like hours as he contemplated the ramifications of going into your room to check on you. He knew that he wasn't supposed to come in as that was one of the few rules you set for the two brothers, but after seeing your poor broken body crawl into it and not emerge for several days, he was going into panic mode. Too much of his schedule was being affected by your isolation and with sans absent as well, Papyrus was slowly starting to break down. He didn't function with being alone for too long, he always needed some sort of companionship, even if they were just sitting silently in the same room with them. The feeling of loneliness was just too much for him to handle and with him being worried about your wounds or if you were seriously hurt, you surely needed his help.

After the incident, sans immediately disappeared into his room and all attempts from Papyrus went unanswered. His room was locked for the very first time that Papyrus could remember and he nearly broke down in front of the door. Yet again, he had messed up and caused another problem to arise because of his own shortcomings. He almost threw the glasses away in his anger and frustration, but stopped himself when that would only exacerbate things. Instead, he did what he did best and began to strategize, trying to come up with a battle plan so to speak on how to tackle these new obstacles. Making sure you were alright was his top priority. He...he could sort things out with his brother after you were deemed healthy and ok. But the current issue at hand of entering your room was stopping him at the doorknob.

Papyrus followed directions to the T and did not like to break them, but this was almost certainly a life or death situation that could establish a loophole for him to exploit. He jiggled the knob and found it to be locked. No matter, just another problem for him to solve, and by solve, he "gently" forced the door in. Door off the hinges, he was sure he could fix it at another time when there weren't more pressing matters to attend to, he entered the room. The bedroom was very dark, but Papyrus could see that it was simply furnished, somewhat like his brother's. A bed in the corner, a bookshelf with many, many books upon it, a small entertainment center with a tv, and a crafting table. He didn't see you anywhere though, but he could hear something and his instincts flared as he stood still and listened for where the small sounds were coming from. They were coming from the right corner of the room where another door was closed, and as he drew closer the small noises turned into sobs and he halted suddenly.

The closet door morphed into his own closet door from the Underground and he heard his own whimpers and soft cries from behind it. Papyrus shook his head, clearing the memory away. He reached for the door and gently opened it, preparing himself for the worse. He needed to be the strong, he needed to be The Great Papyrus once more and help those in need. The door slowly creaked open and initially he didn't see you. You were huddled under hanging clothing, propped up next to the dresser. You sniffles had quieted down and Papyrus didn't dare speak, not knowing if you were going to be afraid of him if he spoke.  _ "Is..is he gone?" _ Your voice sounded defeated and so, so soft Papyrus almost didn't catch it. His soul clenched when it finally registered what you were asking, but when he didn't answer you asked again,  _ "please, I don't care if you're real or not, please tell me. Has Jeremy finally gone away?"  _

Papyrus didn't know who this Jeremy was, but it was very obvious to him that he had harmed you some way or another that pulled you into this distorted reality. Your cries started back up again and he quickly answered, making sure to keep his voice as quiet as he could,  _ "jEreMy iS NoT hErE, [Y/n]" _

You quieted back down and after a moment or so, pushed the clothing out of the way and limply crawled out. Your eyes were swollen and red with many hours worth of shedding tears and Papyrus could see you had a faraway expression on your face as you curled back up as best as you could, leaning back against the bookcase and wincing in pain. There were bruises along your left side and your ankle looked like the worse with its massive swelling and darkened yellowish bruise on it. You stared up at Papyrus and smiled, so he thought maybe you were alright.  _ "You...you actually came this time...all those other times Jeremy said you were just something from my imagination, but you're actually here! I knew I just had to keep believing for you to appear." _

The tears returned as you wiped your face,  _ "I'm trying so hard to be strong, but it's...it's getting to be too much. I thought I could trust him, but he's turned everyone away from me! I can't go to anyone anymore! I...I only have you." _

Staring up at Papyrus for what seemed like hours, you weakly smiled, _ _"I don't know how far I'll make it, but...but I'm getting out of here, away from him. I found something in the paper a few weeks, something about helping those monsters that the news were talking about a year or so ago that emerged from Mt. Ebott. You get to live with them and help them fit into society. I've met a couple of monsters so far, but there's these two brothers, sans and Papyrus, that seem really nice. Well, Papyrus is very nice, but...sans doesn't seem to like me. But, I just need time! Just time for him to get to know me, I know I'm not worthless or bad and I want someone, anyone to understand that. Maybe...maybe if I got approved, we could help each other out? I just don't want to be here anymore, I don't want to see him, I don't anything to do with him!"_ _

* * *

 

**A year ago...**

At one point in your life, you could say that things were going pretty good, maybe even perfect in your eyes. The problem is, nothing is perfect in life.

You had a good job, great friends, and very recently was in a new relationship. You had met Jeremy when your office had its annual holiday party with the other floors in the building your job occupied. Bumping into him accidentally at the punch bowl, you spilled punch all down the front of your outfit. You were completely mortified, but he quickly helped you to a side office where you were given a change of clothes. After getting to chat with him that night, you two hit it off pretty quickly. Even though he worked a few floors away from you, he always seemed to bump into at the elevator or even in the office cafeteria.

It was clear that you were smitten the first time you saw a vase of flowers sitting on your desk with a small card with your name on it with a heart. Eventually it got out that you were seeing him and a few rumors began to circulate, something about Jeremy and that he'd already been transferred to several departments in the building, each time his move was under questionable circumstances. At least, circumstances that were never really explained. When you asked him about the rumors, he said that he jumped from department to department so easily because his father was one of the higher ups for the company. He got bored with routine and every six months or so would move to a different department to work on something new.

Jeremy seemed like an all around good guy. He worked well in his current department, coached little league on the weekends and in the summer, and of course, spent lots of time with you. Life couldn't be any better for you...until that perfection started to crumble...

Four months into the relationship, you started noticing money missing from your purse. It wasn't that noticeable at first, but when 2-3 twenties were going missing from the night before, you wondered if you were going crazy. Jeremy didn't think much of it, saying that maybe you had spent the cash on *insert item here*. He brushed off the notion that he had taken it and that you must have misplaced the cash. You honestly couldn't remember what you could've spent the money on and you trusted Jeremy enough to leave it be. You did have the tendency to put things down only to forget where you put the thing once you actually needed it. But, as the weeks passed and it was still happening, you stopped carrying cash altogether and kept your purse in different places when you got home from work. You didn't want to think it was Jeremy who was taking your cash, but SOMETHING in your gut was saying this whole scenario seemed a little...off.

Jeremy had been pulling extra shifts causing your already slimmed down time together to be almost nonexistent. He worked late afternoons in the early morning whereas you worked a normal 8 to 5 shift. He still sent messages to your phone or quirky emails, but physically he seemed to disappear altogether. You thought about asking your boss about the shifts he'd picked up, but chose to respect the privacy to his life and made due. One Wednesday afternoon, you came home to find Jeremy passed out on the couch with dozens of liquor bottles on the table and floor. When you tried to rouse him from sleep, it was clear he was pretty drunk. He came alive with a flurry of chatter, muttering that the deals had gone bad and that all the money was gone and how fucked he was. It was all confusing gibberish and you grabbed him by the shoulders to try and pull him together when you he suddenly struck, slapping you across the face sending you to the ground.

You were honestly so shocked by the slap, you didn't sit up immediately. In all the time you'd been together, you had barely fought with one another. Sure, there were arguments and disagreements, but never, NEVER had they grown violent. A shadow fell over you as you looked up into the twisted face of your boyfriend. There was so much malice in his expression and as he leaned down, you shut your eyes and awaited your fate.

That night ended up being the very beginning of the torture that was to come. The next morning, you pulled yourself out of bed and stared at the damage. A swollen black eye, bruises on your neck, and more than one muscle felt sore. Covering the bruises with some make up would be easy enough, but explaining the black eye to your coworkers would not. Still, you did the best you could in covering the injuries and went into work, saying the swelling was just an allergic reaction. A couple of coworkers, the ones who had warned you in the beginning that Jeremy was trouble, didn't seem to believe you. But, they left it alone and you worked quietly. When you came back from lunch, there was a new set of flowers on your desk with a small note that read, "I'm sorry" with an unhappy smiley face.

This should've set off alarm bells, but again you pushed it away and accepted the flowers and the apology that came with it. Jeremy came home and profusely apologized for his actions, getting you an ice pack and medicine for the pain. You hoped that this was just a one off incident. A month later, some of your jewelry came up missing. This time, you did go to Jeremy about them as only you and he knew where you had the expensive jewelry hidden. He grew defensive, evading your questions and another slap came again to your face. You weren't even fully healed from the damage from last month and here you were again on the floor. You winced and cried as he sat on top of you smacking and hitting any place he could, screaming in your face that you should keep your nose out of other people's business and if you were to tell ANYONE about this, then the punishment would be far, far worse.

The next few months came and went and the torture grew more and more intense. He became verbally abusive in between his spouts of violence, calling you 'useless', 'nothing but a fat ugly whore' and so on and so forth. You really thought about going for help from your coworkers, but he made it seem like even if you tried, you'd put them at risk. He'd either find a way to get them fired or they were simply removed from your department. Soon you were all alone, there was no one to talk to and you continued to deteriorate. It got so bad, you'd avoid coming home as much as possible, even if it meant another round of punishment the following day when Jeremy accused you of going and sleeping with other men. You smelled foreign perfume on him so much, the thought of sex with anyone right now made you gag. You truly felt alone and in those periods of isolation, began talking to yourself. 

The imaginary friend was born just to try and keep yourself grounded to the real world even though you were essentially speaking and answering yourself. The imaginary friend kept you from doing anything sudden or calmed you down after an especially vicious beating. They weren't always there, but in your darkest hours, they would eventually appear and get you through the pain. You knew you were starting to crack and needed to escape before anything worse happened.

You had started visiting a late night diner where you would eat dinner and contemplate how you could escape this never ending nightmare. The waitress had come to know you these past few weeks and took pity on you, often giving you a free dinner every once in a while. One night, while reading through the newspaper, you came across a listing for human caregivers. That was weird enough, but when it entailed paid for living expenses in return for taking care of patients in need of rehabilitation into society, you realized this may be your one and only chance to escape. You had to plan it carefully though, you gave a call to the facility and through a pretty quick background check, was called into an interview.

The first "patient" to come in was the shock of your life. The ad in the page said patient, but you were staring at a full blown monster! The monster didn't react to you well either and immediately tried to attack and was quickly subdued and taken away. Strangely, you didn't really flinch or react, you had gotten so used to sudden outbursts of anger that you were emotionally numb to them. A few monsters later, you were sat at a table staring at two skeletons. The introduction was rocky at best, but you felt a connection to these already and when the final interview came and they both agreed that you'd be their human caregiver, you were beside yourself with happiness. Those last two weeks were nerve wracking as you dodged your boyfriend like hellfire while slowly moving what you could into a storage locker for the final move. 

Eventually, Jeremy caught up to your plan when you submitted your resignation and tried to get the last of your things from the apartment. After the argument broke down into another beating, Jeremy ended up breaking your arm in the ensuing fight when he tried to wrench the caregiver papers from your grip. You managed to hang on to them and in a burst of confidence, or maybe insanity, kicked him square in the balls and then stomped on his stomach, stealing the air from him and leaving him on the ground in the near empty apartment. You spit at him that you were leaving and then sprinted for the elevator as he lay groaning on the ground. There was nowhere for you to go until you could move into the new living quarters. Checking into the local doc in a box, you managed to get your arm splint and then drove to the diner for one final dinner. The waitress was horrified and gave you a bag of hamburgers for the next day or so while you slept in your car.

The day of move in was a godsend. You had movers that were hired from the hospital to come move your things into your new room and instantly loved that it was yours...it was all yours. Your special place. No one but you was going to be in this room and certainly Jeremy would not be here. Papyrus and sans were moved in shortly after and while sans was still aloof and standoffish, Papyrus immediately warmed up to you, even wanting to sign your cast, even though his full name would not fit. You were fine with a scrawled 'P A P Y R U S' anyway. Honestly this was the best you were feeling in nearly half a year. You felt so...so free. There was no worry of abuse and Papyrus' kindness was truly genuine. Even sans was warming up to you albeit very, very slowly. You were fine with this life reset, maybe you could move on from this pain and help someone else like the brothers. Yes, you would put your all into making someone else happy and well when their previous way of life was brutally taken from them.

Papyrus smile, and even sans' off putting puns let you know that there could be a brighter future ahead. You just needed to keep heading forward...

* * *

 

You winced as you pulled yourself closer to your imaginary friend,  _ "I'm glad you're here though. I worried it was Jeremy again, but I guess he's gone back to that trashy bar again. -sigh- I thought he was perfect when we first met. But...I should've listened to the people around me, that he wasn't who I thought he was. I thought they were just jealous, but now...now I see what he really is. I want to call him a monster, but I can't really call him that, can I? He's not the same as the few I've met. The few I've met look like they've suffered so much like me, and probably more so. I...I know at least a little of what happened under the mountain from the files they've let me read and it's just so horrible. But, they were trying to survive! I don't believe that they're inherently evil and I can't compare them to...to him, because they're nothing like him." _

You paused and curled your good hand into a fist,  _ "HE deserves a fate like that, not them. Him having to live in fear and not know if it was his last day, getting beat up over and over with no end or or maybe just flat out getting killed."  _ You brushed away more tears before staring up at your friend, _ "that's horrible of me to say, but I'm just so tired of being mistreated. I...I just want to be love. Is there hope for me?" _

Papyrus was shocked, he could think back to when he first met you at the meeting and noticed just how rough and beat up you looked. The cast on your arm did not escape him gaze and he wondered who could have done this to a seemingly nice human. He was wary though, after the fall of the Underground due to his misguidance in being friends with the last human, he was still very nervous around you. sans was equally distressed and they almost did not get into the program due to his panic attacks, which were violent more often than not. He did not sense anything from you and he could see that you had truly had gone above and beyond to help them out...even when you got hurt in the process. You were a kind and strong willed human, who truly held no malice in the soul. He whispered softly,  **_"_ ** _tHerE iS HoPe, [y/N]. YoU muSt bEliEvE In yOuRseLf, yOu wiLl MovE oNtO A beTteR pLaCe WhErE yOu ArE lOvEd."_

He was sincere in what he said as he did care for you, he was sure sans did to some degree as well, but it would just take time like you said it would. Certainly a bit more due to the recent circumstances, but this felt like it still could have a positive outcome, for some reason Papyrus just could feel that there was a light at the end of the tunnel and just needed to keep moving forward towards it. Papyrus suddenly jolted `when he felt something touch his leg and stared down to see you gently poking at him,  _ "you feel so real this time. I almost didn't think you'd come, that I really just was crazy, but you're actually here." _

He allowed you to continue to slide close, maneuvering his legs apart to give you access. You leaned against his broken battle body and wrapped the uninjured arm around him as best as you could in a semi hug. Papyrus initially flinched, but calmed when you did not move and your breathing slowed down slightly. Papyrus was very still for a couple of minutes to figure out what your intentions were when he realized you had fallen asleep against him, taking comfort and security from your not so imaginary friend. Papyrus smiled as best as he could with his crooked teeth and gently wrapped his arms around you, making sure not to squeeze tightly around the injured portion. His long legs curled and closed, essentially trapping you in his hold. If anything, you squeezed harder and he gently pet your head, just like sans did for him all those years ago. Eventually he stilled and just held you, resting his chin on top of your head and just...just keeping you close. 

It felt right to have you there, you were definitely thrown into his and sans' life for a reason and he was determined to keep you there. He closed his sockets and enjoyed the closeness and comfort he felt in his soul. A few minutes passed and a flicker of light appeared on the walls. Papyrus had fallen asleep as well, curled around your form, his hands offering both support and safety. His fingers twitched slightly as crackles of magic danced across the surface and intertwined through the joints and that same hue appeared behind his left eye socket. The flickering magic passed over your body in short waves and settled over the wounds on the left side of your body. Slowly it started to knit your battered body back together. The horrible bruises that lined your shoulder and side faded, though not all the way, it looked considerably better. The swelling in your ankle gradually went down and all that remained was bruised skin. The magic traveled up your body and off, leaving you partially healed and a serene smile on your face. The other arm that had been laying limp to the side came around and completed the hug you had started as Papyrus let out a small happy 'nyeh' in his sleep.

In the broken, dark doorway sans could only stare in a mixture of awe and disbelief at the reappearance of Papyrus' magic and the scene before him.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Uh....hi? Well I'm back after a little break. I lost a bit of inspiration and then it suddenly reared its head back in my life today. I tried my best in this chapter and after getting constructive criticism on another fic am trying to make sure I break up the paragraphs after someone speaks to make it easier to read. I don't know, let me know if I've done a better, or worse, job of making it read better. *shrugs* I'm doing my best here! 
> 
> Will try to have the next chapter out soon! Thanks for reading, kudos, and your comments! :)


	10. Fragile

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Fragile ~ Poets of the Fall - Cause the love you used to feel is still there, inside // It may be a faded photograph, but I know you care, so don't hide // If you're scared, I'm here beside you // If you get lost I'm here to guide you // And I give you peace when peace is fragile // Love is all the good in you // Love is peace when peace is fragile

sans was in a dark, dark place.

He had been holed up in his room since the incident two days ago with his door locked for the very first time. Papyrus had tried to encourage him to come out, that he was getting lonely with you and him gone for so long. Eventually Papyrus began to sob outside his door, clearly affected by his and your absence. It hurt, it hurt so much to hear his brother crying out for him but he had just damned the both of them with his actions. Even he didn't believe what he had done until he'd come out of the dark red haze that overtook him. He had could only see his brother lying on the floor unconscious with you hovering over him and in his mind, he didn't see you; he saw someone from the past that held lifeless eyes with a sharp smile holding a freshly dusted knife in their hands. sans immediately lashed out on impulse. He vaguely remembered you were beside Papyrus, telling him something frantically, but he could no longer hear you as he was pulled into that ever consuming redness that stole him back into the Underground with its never ending resets.

Like so many times before, he sent the assailant flying backward, away from his brother. He actually managed to get to him before they could steal the final blow and dust him. He knelt down and held Papyrus close, crying out loud that he couldn't possibly leave him alone, that they always did things together, even if it meant dusting together. He didn't even see something like this coming and he SHOULD have. He promised Papyrus that last night before the change that nothing, NOTHING would ever harm him and he'd utterly failed him. His brother's body should have begun dusting, but when he suddenly came to, sans' world was turned upside down, or maybe it was turning right side up once more. sans struggled to comprehend the words being said to him. Papyrus should be dead! He saw the blow, felt his dust...didn't he?

Papyrus spoke up again, his voice muffled in sans' head and mentioned his fainting spells which sans honed in on. sans wasn't aware that he had any medical issues outside of the ones plain to see and nothing was said to him once they were released from the facility. The humans were more focused on getting them out the door to do any final check up or anything of the sort. Clarity was slowly returning as the haze disappeared and he recognized not the walls of his old Snowdin home or the Judgment Hall, but the walls of the apartment that he shared with Papyrus and yo- The sound of your pained groans and whimpers fully seated sans back into reality as he and his brother stared at your poor broken body crawling away from where you had landed and into your room. You were weakly mumbling something about someone named Jeremy. Whoever this 'Jeremy' was it was evident that he was not a friend of yours and had done something terrible to you at some point. His flashback had ended up having dire consequences and as your door shut, Papyrus turned to him in shock,

**_“WhAt dId YoU dO, BrOtHeR, wHaT hAvE yOu DoNe?”_ **

He remembered forcing himself through the void to his room, crashing against the small table next to his bed as Papyrus' words haunted him. He flicked the lock on his door with his magic and curled into a tight ball on the floor. He didn't want Papyrus to have to be back in that prison with white walls, fake smiles, and mind-numbing drugs. Not when he'd worked so hard to get them out, and he did, he worked so hard to get over his initial fears of the humans. Some of the doctors took note of his actions and mentioned terms like “severe mental instability” and "shows signs of PTSD". Quite frankly, their time in the facility was all a blur to him. He only started to come out of the haze during those last few meetings where you were introduced to him and his brother. He didn't trust anyone in the room, especially the likes of you. You, who were literally being thrown into an apartment with two monsters who were capable of severe brutality, to serve as a babysitter to them. What was left of his logical mind failed to see the reasoning behind this. How in god's name did they think this was a good idea?!

But, moving day came and went and gone were the clinical white walls, sterile smells of chemicals, and fake smiles. Now they were literally parked in an unsupervised shitty apartment with a tiny human that looked just as beaten up as they were. He didn't complain though, just let it happen so that his brother could have the chance to live a "normal" life. He'd drift along just like he'd always done and make due with what he had. It was easy enough to do so, he spent most of his time in his room anyway. Papyrus, not one to laze about, enjoyed spending time out and about and it seemed you enjoyed doing so as well. He'd always be a few feet away from whatever room you both were in, making sure you had no tricks up your sleeve or any ill intentions towards his brother. A few weeks passed and you had adopted a schedule that you performed like clockwork, there were times for breakfast, lunch, and dinner with in between slots for your crafting and time with Papyrus. Man, he didn’t want to admit to you, but Paps was doing so much better. He'd really come out of his shell with most of his sanity intact and with you helping him with daily activities and puzzles, he was nearly back to his old self.

He was surprised when you tried the same tactics on him, going out of your way to try and include him in your daily activities, even when he was so standoffish towards you. You actually took the time to try and understand him, avoid his triggers, and...and he still treated you like trash. He knew you didn’t deserve any of his malice, that alone was for one specific human who had stepped in and ruined his and countless others’ lives. He deserved any punishment that he was going to get for this, but...maybe he could try and make something right before they were taken away once more.

It was late at night when he finally unlocked his door and ventured out for the first time. The apartment was quiet and he wasn’t sure where Papyrus had gone to making his first priority to find him. He wasn’t in his room and as he went downstairs, he could hear you crying and talking to someone. He leaned over the banister to see your door completely off its hinges and he feared the worst and quickly teleported to the doorway. Inside, he saw Papyrus on the floor with you crawling towards him. You pulled yourself up and leaned onto his battle body, wrapping your good side around him in a hug. Papyrus reciprocated the hug and just held you, keeping you close.

Sans didn’t know how long he stood there watching the two of you, but a flicker of something in the room caught his one good eye light. There was a small speck of light dancing across the room and he searched for its source. Its source turned out to be none other than Papyrus’ magic, making itself known after being silent for so long. Sans watched in disbelief as it danced over Papyrus’ hands and then over your battered body, healing it as much as it could before fading away, leaving both you smiling and relaxing into a peaceful slumber. He immediately jumped through the void back to his room. Oh my stars, Papyrus’ magic was slowly coming back!

His hopefulness was quickly crushed by the sudden realization that them being sent back to the hospital would probably undo all the hard work that Papyrus accomplished, whether he realized it or not. Fuck, fuck, fuck! He couldn’t let his brother be at risk to fall down after so much progress. He paced back and forth in circles, trying to think clearly. Maybe...maybe he could persuade you to only send him back to the hospital. Papyrus had done nothing wrong and didn’t deserve to be punished. His soul pulsed sadly, he didn’t want to be separated from his brother. They never really were separated, even during all the resets, he came back to him. But, he needed to be strong for once, to not be selfish. His pace quickened and a claw strayed to the hole in his head to pick at the cracks. Sans would be ok on his own, it would be just another hurt he could pack away with the rest of the pain in his soul that he held onto. He could do it, he had to do it. He would-

A small knock sounded at his door breaking him from his thoughts and ceased the picking at his wound. The knock wasn’t Papyrus’ loud, enthusiastic bangs, so who could...it...be?

_“Sans, are you there?”_

He froze. It was you at the door?! How?? Even after Papyrus’ healing, he didn't think you'd be able to stand let alone climb the stairs to be at his door trying to talk to him after what he did to you. The floor betrayed him and creaked loudly as he tried to put more distance between himself and the door. Maybe if he ignored her long enough, she'd leave. If he was going to be forced back into that hellhole facility, he needed more time to think, to plan, but all he saw was your battered body in his mind, over and over again. He wasn’t going to be able to recover from this, he was permanently scarred, beyond all h-

_"sans, please come out. I...we, we just want to help you.”_

Sans heard the word, “help”, and snapped, flinging the door open, stalking out of the darkness towards you. His magic was pouring out of his socket, trying to look intimidating enough that you would leave him be.

_**"STOP. SAYING. THAT. EVERYONE KEEPS SAYING THEY WANT TO HELP, BUT THEY CAN'T. YOU CAN'T HELP ME. I COULDN'T HELP PAPYRUS THEN, I CAN'T HELP PAPYRUS NOW. HOW CAN I HELP MYSELF IF I CAN'T EVEN HELP HIM?! ALL I DO IS HURT OTHERS...I DON'T DESERVE THE HELP!"** _

He stopped yelling and stilled, mere feet away when he saw Papyrus was standing next to you with tears silently falling down his face. He was looking at him pleadingly as he held your hand in support. sans watched as you squeezed his hand and gave him an encouraging smile. Papyrus nodded and turned back to his brother, wiping away his tears,

**"PlEaSe, BrOthEr, sToP tHiS. wE juSt wAnT tO hElP yOu GeT beTtEr, ThE GreAt PapYrUs kNowS yOu Can Do tHiS, sAnS. WhAteVer YoU'Ve bEeN kEePiNg sEcrEt, yOu doN't hAvE tO KeEp sTruGgliNg wItH It oN yOuR oWn."**

**LeT It oUT, SaNs."**

_“Let us in."_

Papyrus and your words echoed through sans’ skull as he collapsed to the ground, sobbing loudly. He raked at his skull with his claws, hoping the words would silence. He just wanted everything to come to a stop so he could slowly build his wall back up. He planned and expected to just see you on the other side of the door, not his brother as well. He wanted it just to be you, for you to run, scream, flinch at the monster that he was. He even expected you to lash out at him like he so deserved. But then he'd seen his brother beside, the both of you hoping and pleading to let him share the burden that he alone had carried for so long. sans shook his head furiously and fought back, he didn't want that for Papyrus. Papyrus deserved to be happy. There was so much he couldn’t give his brother, why would he take that one bit of peace from him?

He could feel Papyrus trying to reach out with his previously silent magic, could feel it wrapping around his soul encouraging love and safety. The constant pain in his soul that had been building for so long shuddered under the blanket of comfort. The shuddering turned into a huge explosion and his soul burst like a dam, overflowing with all the previously locked away pain to radiate outwards as his magic lashed out.

He worried for Papyrus and even for you as his magic swarmed in his agony. He cried and screamed until there was no more to spill and exhaustion took over. He barely registered his brother coming over to pick him up from the floor and curl around him in a hug, continuing to send waves of love and security into him. sans wanted to pull away, but he desperately needed an anchor to ground himself and simply allowed it and eventually returned the hug.

_“‘m sorry, Paps, ‘m so sorry.”_

Sans was crying again into Papyrus’ shoulder as he hugged tighter onto him, not wanting to let go. Papyrus was in no position of letting him go and gripped him tighter. He slowly rocked sans back and forth, shushing his cries and rubbing circles on his back as kissed his forehead, **“It's oK, sAnS. i'M...wE'Re hErE fOr YoU."**

Sans hiccupped and turned his head to stare at you. You remained where Papyrus had been standing as your own tears dripped down your face. You had respected his need for space, but Papyrus raised his hand and beckoned you forward to join the hug. You stared at Papyrus’ hand and then back to him, silently asking for permission. Sans paused, there was a small feeling of fear, but he pushed it away for now and nodded. You approached slowly, joining in the hug and carefully wrapping your arms around the brothers. He flinched but settled as Papyrus brought your foreheads to his. There was a moment of silence as the rapid energy and stress died away and you spoke up.

_“Sans?”_

He turned slightly, afraid to look at you directly, but managed to do so and was taken aback at the care in your expression. _“Papyrus loves you very much, sans, I care for you. We have no clue what you’re going through right now, but we want you to know that we’re here for you. That we want to help you move past this pain you're feeling. I knew when I signed up for this to expect that not everything was going to go smoothly or be fixed overnight. I came expecting the bumps and bruises and hurdles that come with helping someone back on their feet. The incident from tonight is not going to push me away and I will not send you back to the facility. I can sense so much for you and Papyrus, I feel like we all have our own problems that are holding us back, but I know we can help each other heal and move on to a bigger, brighter future.”_

You looked at Papyrus and smiled as his sockets gradually filled with tears. You turned to smile at sans, seeing his sockets were filled with tears again as he cried into Papyrus' shoulder and into yours. He didn't know what he had done to get a second chance or even why he was getting it, but something in his soul said to take it. There were still unknowns that he was afraid of, but if he had people like Papyrus and you to help build him back up, then maybe...just maybe he could start to heal.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> *passes the tissue box around*
> 
> Everybody's gonna cry over all three of these characters, I swear to god. With this, I hope to leave some, if not most, of the angst behind and finally start working on getting everybody actually working on their issues, discussing them, and becoming healthier individuals. Oh, there'll still be hurdles to jump and some to trip and fall flat on their face, but they deserve some good times ahead. I'm sure Papyrus will be the one at the front dragging a half asleep sans while you, the Reader, try to keep up.
> 
> In the meantime, I'm going to try and set a schedule to update this every week to week and half to prevent burnout and also work on overall writing and grammar. I've gotten several helpful hints to better my work and I'm still pretty uncomfortable trying to adjust to changes I need to make, including several topics I'm writing about. But, I'll keep trying to better myself! :)
> 
> Again, I can't thank you enough for the comments, kudos, and general positive feedback. I hope you'll stick with me through the thick and thin for the rest of the adventure! <3


End file.
